The Instigators

There are a lot of tell-tale signs that a movie isn't going to be very good. One pretty solid rule of thumb is that it's an Apple Studios production. Another is that within ten minutes, you can tell that the generic title has nothing to do with the story or the characters. A third is that the smart actors and filmmakers seem to be trying too hard to achieve a dumb, laid-back quality. All of these issues are present in the blandly and randomly titled The Instigators. The latest from Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's production company Artists Equity, which also gave us Air and Small Things Like These, stars Damon and Casey Affleck as two bonehead Bostonians who get partnered up for an ill-conceived heist during the night of the mayoral election.

Clearly, screenwriters Chuck Maclean and Casey Affleck are going for a Coenesque comedic one-upping of Ben Affleck's The Town, but with Boston's brutalist landmark City Hall as its action centerpiece rather than Fenway Park. Along for much of the ride is the well-meaning therapist of Damon's divorced ex-Marine character. She's played by the reliable scene-stealer Hong Chow. Damon, Affleck, and Chow are always great to watch and are each doing the type of roles they can pull off in their sleep. Like everything in this picture, their performances don't exactly feel phoned-in, but they also don't feel like a lot of time was put in. The screenplay is chock full of underdeveloped characters played by actors far too noteworthy to merit participation in this mild lark, like Michael Stuhlbarg, Alfred Molina, and Ving Rhames. Ron Perlman, Toby Jones, and Paul Walter Hauser are also tasked with turning ideas for characters into actual people, with slightly more success.

The first act is a hodgepodge of not-very-interesting characters and sequences, but the movie picks up once the heist is bungled, and it delivers some genuinely funny scenes every few minutes. Matt and Casey don't have the chemistry they've had in other movies, but they get by on their well-worn screen personas. Director Doug Liman (Swingers, Go, The Bourne Identity, Edge of Tomorrow, American Made) can usually be counted on to bring credibility to souped-up action, but everything in this movie feels a bit artificial. The chase scenes feel too CGI-cheated, with too many cars flying through deserted Boston streets that would never be that empty (in any city). Like so many movies of 2024, things don't feel grounded in the real world. That's not always a bad thing for a comedy, but it really hurts an action movie. The whole thing feels simultaneously over-developed and undercooked.

Still, the movie is a perfect example of what I'd call a low-three-star movie. I know this aspect of my star-rating system confuses some people, but in this film and another 2024 streaming release, we have a perfect example of a low-three-star and a high-two-star film. The Instigators is better and more cinematically successful, yet perhaps not quite as enjoyable as this same year's big dumb Netflix original action thriller, Carry-On. But Carry-On is so ineptly made with horrendously staged action sequences, humor that falls flat, and contrivances so absurd that, even if graded on the bell curve of Netflix actioners, I can only recommend it as a silly but amusing enough diversion. Whereas most everything about The Instigators clears the low bar of a straight-to-streaming action comedy starring some of your favorite actors (if you indeed like these actors, and I certainly do). Both films are mildly enjoyable and instantly forgettable. The Instigators just holds together a tiny bit better.