Remember The Town? You know, the 2010 Ben Affleck movie about professional bank robbers from South Boston that earned Jeremy Renner a nomination for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar? What if someone did that movie again, but just a little off-kilter?
Well, that’s pretty much the premise of The Instigators, Apple TV’s new crime comedy starring Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, and Jack Harlow. That’s right, instead of a hard-hitting family drama, the story is now a comedy. Instead of a professional crew looking for one last score, it’s an over-the-hill ex-Marine staging his first heist with the help of a young crew including Harlow, who all appear more experienced than him. And, of course, instead of a grimacing Ben Affleck, you’ve got his jaunty best friend. I need to see this, like, yesterday.
The film was originally announced last year and continues Harlow’s foray into acting, which has received … “mixed” reactions. While Harlow’s acting itself has been praised, his prior movie, a remake of White Men Can’t Jump, was widely maligned (unfairly, in my opinion) for not being as good as the original (such things so rarely are). Jack clearly has no fear of failure here; he shared the trailer on Instagram:
The rest of the The Instigators cast is an all-star roster consisting of Alfred Molina, Hong Chau, Michael Stuhlbarg, Paul Walter Hauser, Ron Perlman, and Ving Rhames. It’s also directed by Doug Liman, so maybe people will finally start taking all those “Apple TV has the best content” takes seriously. Someone tell Netflix this is how it’s done.
Watch the The Instigators trailer above and stream the movie in full on August 9.
