Produced by, and starring, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. A confected, Sicario (2015)-adjacent paramilitary-cop operation, bent, nowhere as smart as it needed to be. The cash involved is not in the Breaking Bad league but they pretend it is. The procedural aspects are rubbish. Michael Mann got a lot more out of Miami (2006), and those final chase scenes are so lame compared to Heat (1995).
Stop me if you've seen something similar but better before; clearly these boys are too far from Boston (2010), just looking for a payday. The epistemics are very poorly handled: we have little reason to believe anything we’re told at any point. I waited for a twist that just didn’t come.
What's frustrating is that they pulled a strong cast and squandered them. Steven Yeun does what he can but is really only asked to hold on. Teyana Taylor is tame; actually all the female characters do so little that I don't know why they were included. Roid-rage Affleck did not nail the Rambo/Stallone/Josh Brolin role. The cinematography is dingy and washed out. The soundtrack is obtrusive and poor. Directed by Joe Carnahan (The A-Team (2010)) who co-wrote the script with Michael McGrale. The prior art made me wonder why thy didn't pull Sharlto Copley into this as it's not too far from that and Free Fire (2016).
Brandon Yu at the New York Times: "Training Day (2001), with a dash of Bad Boys (1983)".
