The Town (Two-Disc Extended Cut) [Blu-ray]

Ben Affleck follows his acclaimed iGone Baby Gone/i directorial debut by directing, co-writing and starring in a taut thriller about robbers and cops, friendship and betrayal, love and hope and escaping a past that has no future. He plays Doug MacRay, leader of a Boston bank robber gang but not cut from the same cloth as his fellow thieves. When Doug falls into a passionate romance with the bank manager (Rebecca Hall) briefly taken hostage in their last heist, he wants out of this life and out of the town. As the Feds close in and the crew questions his loyalty, he has one of two choices: betray his friends or lose the woman he loves. Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively, Titus Welliver, Pete Postlethwaite and Chris Cooper also star.

Ben Affleck worked triple-time on iThe Town/i, in which he directs, stars, and co-adapts Chuck Hogan's iPrince of Thieves/i. Affleck's Doug MacRay comes from a line of Boston bank robbers. With his father (Chris Cooper) behind bars, he spent most of his childhood in Charlestown with loyal hothead Jem (iThe Hurt Locker/i's Jeremy Renner). Doug had a chance to go legit as a pro hockey player, but he threw it away on drugs and bad behavior. After the armed robbery that opens the film, Jem becomes convinced that bank manager Claire (iVicki Cristina Barcelona/i's Rebecca Hall) saw something, so Doug, who wore a disguise at the time, sets out to make sure she doesn't tell FBI agent Frawley (iMad Men/i's Jon Hamm) anything incriminating (Titus Welliver plays Frawley's partner). Doug starts by asking Claire out, and finds she's more shaken than stirred--and that he likes her better than Jem's oxy-addicted sister, Krista (iGossip Girl/i's Blake Lively), his sometime girlfriend. Unfortunately, neither Jem nor vicious enforcer Fergie (Pete Postlethwaite) will cut him loose until he orchestrates two more scores--the last to take place at Fenway Park. If iThe Town/i offers fewer surprises than Affleck's directorial debut, iGone Baby Gone/i, he raises the stakes with well-planned heists, nerve-jangling car chases, and deadly shootouts. Though Affleck looks too clean-cut to portray a thug, he gives a nicely understated performance, while Hall proves an inspired choice as a woman who could make a bad guy turn good--or die trying. i--Kathleen C. Fennessy/i