The Town

Ben Affleck's latest Bahston-situated effort has a couple of things going for it: Unlike "Gone Baby Gone" the story line is fairly lucid, and unlike "Good Will Hunting," it doesn't feature Robin Williams.

"The Town" is Charlestown, an enclave across the river from Boston. According to the overview presented during the opening credits, robbing banks is considered a career in The Town, a legacy handed down from father to son. So guess what this movie is all about! Yup,with lots of profanity, lots of vehicular mayhem and lots of gunfire.

These are the folks that make it happen:

• Ben Affleck ("Extract") is an experienced bank and armored truck robber. Unfortunately, his gang takes a hostage from one of the banks.
• Rebecca Hall ("Vicky Cristina Barcelona") is that bank manager. Even though she was released with no injury, she still suffers from post traumatic stress disorder.
• Jeremy Renner ("The Hurt Locker") is the loose cannon in the gang. This actor brings a menacing energy to his roles that evokes danger even when his character is chatting over a beer.
• Jon Hamm ("Mad Men") is a determined FBI man. He, like Afflick, is a fashion victim, with a scruffy three-day growth of whiskers disfiguring his handsome face.
• Pete Postlethwaite ("Inception") is a local florist; he is evil incarnate.
• Chris Cooper ("Breach") plays Afflick's understandably angry father, up for parole in a couple of years.

The aforementioned Boston accents were emphasized at the beginning but became hit or miss as time passed. Affleck didn't embarrass himself, but his directing isn't of the caliber of Guillaume Canet ("Tell No One") either. At least we worried about the bank manager spotting that tell-tale tattoo, so clearly we had someone to root for!

HOWEVER: I could have trimmed at least 15 or 20 minutes off the running time by editing out some of that tiresome gun-play.