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    ‘The Instigators’ Review: A Star-Studded Boston Heist Movie

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    Casey Affleck and Matt Damon star in a Boston heist that goes sideways.The best joke in “The Instigators” is a crack about the public school curriculum in Quincy, the suburb just south of Boston that outsiders never pronounce correctly. (It’s closer to a “z” than an “s.”) It feels like an inside joke, as do later affectionate jabs at other Greater Boston locales, lingo and corrupt politicians. This is sort of a heist movie, but it is first and foremost a Boston movie, full of Boston guys and Boston accents and (South) Boston places and Boston humor. Heck, “The Instigators” is practically Boston: The Immersive Experience.It will surprise no one to learn that it’s produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, and co-stars Damon alongside the movie’s co-writer, Casey Affleck. Its other writer is Chuck MacLean, the creator and executive producer of “City on a Hill,” the three-season Showtime drama about, you guessed it, Boston.The director of “The Instigators,” Doug Liman, is a born and raised New Yorker. But both he and Damon found collaborative success in 2002 with “The Bourne Identity.” This is their first project together since that hit, and it’s studded with stars: Alongside Affleck and Damon, there’s Hong Chau, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alfred Molina, Ving Rhames, Paul Walter Hauser, Toby Jones, Ron Perlman and the rapper Jack Harlow (in his second feature film role).Somehow, in 2024, all that wattage still only merits a one-week limited theatrical release in the August dead zone and a quick hop to streaming. Given a few weeks in theaters to pick up steam, I can imagine it doing well, mostly because it’s so easygoing. “The Instigators” starts out like an “Ocean’s 11” riff, with a group of petty thieves gathered by a stormy crime boss, Mr. Besegai (Stuhlbarg), to pull off a big job and then never speak of it again. It seems the sitting governor (Perlman, ideally cast) is a crook, which all but guarantees his re-election — and the cash bribes that will be brought to his victory ball make it an ideal job.Some of the group, like Rory (Damon), really need the money; he’s depressed and desperate and late on his child support, and his therapist (Chau) is worried about him. Others, like Cobby (Casey Affleck) and Scalvo (Harlow), are just the kind of guys who do this kind of thing. But Mr. Besegai is not Mr. Ocean, having snagged none of his breezy luck. Everything goes wrong right from the start, and Cobby and Rory find themselves thrown together in a comedy of blunders.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Road House’ Review: This Remake Amps Up the Action

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      Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a pro fighter turned bouncer at a juke joint in the Florida Keys, taking on Patrick Swayze’s role in the original.The 1989 blockbuster “Road House,” was something of a pastiche. It delivered disreputable B-picture thrills with big-picture production value. The lead actor Patrick Swayze, playing a philosophizing roughneck, smirked with unshakable confidence while breaking arms and jaws, as cars and buildings blew up real good around him. The action was served up with glossy studio polish.Hence, a remake of the film, some might argue, is destined to be a pastiche of a pastiche. But as we move further into the 21st century, we find the notion of authenticity ever more devalued. And who needs it when you’ve got Doug Liman directing the whole thing? He is, after all, the J. Robert Oppenheimer of lunatic action set pieces (“The Bourne Identity,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” “Edge of Tomorrow” to name a few).Taking on Swayze’s role, Jake Gyllenhaal plays the pro fighter turned bouncer Elwood Dalton, here protecting a juke joint that sits on a valuable piece of real estate in the Florida Keys. At his most winning despite his character’s lethal nature, Gyllenhaal keeps up the one-liners and drollery. In lieu of Swayze’s Zenlike musings, he gives us dry inquiries about whether his challengers have medical insurance before pummeling and delivering them to a hospital.This movie delivers a lot of the same kicks as the first, but with contemporary tuneups like a villain played by Conor McGregor, the Ultimate Fighting Championship star who’s first seen stark naked, except for shoes and socks (so he can carry his phone). Though two hours long, the movie moves as swiftly as a greased ferret through a Habitrail and delivers hallucinatory action highs for its extended climax.All this and a pretty funny “The Third Man” reference too.Road HouseRated R for violence and language. Running time: 2 hours 1 minute. Watch on Prime Video. More

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      ‘Locked Down’ Review: In Quarantine, Misery Hates Company

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Locked Down’ Review: In Quarantine, Misery Hates CompanyAnne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor play a couple sheltering in their London brownstone over the early weeks of the pandemic in this irritating heist comedy.Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor in “Locked Down.”Credit…Susan Allnutt/HBO MaxJan. 14, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETLocked DownDirected by Doug LimanComedy, Crime, RomanceR1h 58mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.A London couple endures the most mundane of Covid-19 miseries in “Locked Down,” a desultory comedy set in the early weeks of the pandemic.The story centers on Linda (Anne Hathaway) and Paxton (Chiwetel Ejiofor), longtime romantic partners who suffer the trials, nay, the tortures of a life in lockdown: Zoom calls, pajama pants, cigarettes indoors. Linda whines about feeling listless; Paxton, in a marathon of poor taste, calls neighbors “fellow inmates” and jokes about suicide. Despite cohabitating, the couple has recently split up, and they avoid each other by working and sleeping in separate, lavish bedrooms in their multistory brownstone.The film, directed by Doug Liman (“Mr. & Mrs. Smith”) and streaming on HBO Max, perks up halfway through, once Linda and Paxton each receive a work assignment to retrieve a 3 million pound diamond from Harrods for a wealthy client. The ordinarily law-abiding pair find themselves at a crossroads. Should they risk it all to pocket the diamond, sell it for cash and free their minds from bourgeois malaise?[embedded content]Shot in the fall under pandemic protocols, “Locked Down” has a charming low-fi quality. Many sequences unfold on screens, as Linda and Paxton chat with colleagues or vent to friends over video calls. Ben Kingsley, as Paxton’s manager, and Ben Stiller, as Linda’s boss, appear only virtually, and Liman succeeds in milking the actors’ remote comic timing.But mostly, the film already feels like a relic. Its pandemic jokes — toilet paper hoarders, Zoom freezes — wore thin by summer. We’re meant to identify with Linda and Paxton, to laugh knowingly as the pair descend into isolation-induced hysteria. Instead, the film evokes the era of the cursed “Imagine” video, when celebrities deemed the coronavirus a great equalizer while groaning about going stir-crazy at their villas. Like that Instagram misfire, the best that “Locked Down” has to offer, at least while we remain in the throes of a deadly crisis, is a window into a luxurious space to quarantine.Locked DownRated R. Running time 1 hour 58 minutes. Watch on HBO Max.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More