After the still-steaming pile otherwise known as “Argylle,” Apple has another expensive flop on its hands with “The Instigators,” starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck.
Odie Henderson for The Boston Globe:
It’s sad when a film wastes the talents of so many fine actors. Sad for us, that is, because I’m sure they were all paid handsomely.
“The Instigators” is being called a Boston homecoming for Damon (I guess those Dunkin’ ads don’t count). It’s also a re-teaming of Damon with his “Bourne Identity” director, Doug Liman, whose work has seen far better days. Their reunion brings bad-movie shame to a city formerly known for great heist movies.
★½
Ty Burr for The Washington Post:
Given the talent involved, this may qualify as legally actionable. In addition to the stars, who play Rory (Damon) and Cobby (Affleck), two Bay State meatheads hired to rob an election-night victory party of its graft money, the always-welcome Hong Chau (“The Whale,” “Downsizing”) plays Rory’s psychiatrist, who gets pulled into the aftermath of the botched stickup as a willing hostage.
The respected film and stage actors Michael Stuhlbarg and Alfred Molina play the heist’s mastermind, a foul-mouthed South Boston bakery owner, and his second-in-command. Ron Perlman swaggers and screams as the fictional mayor of Boston, and the ubiquitous character actor Toby Jones plays his accountant. As the mayor’s private enforcer, Ving Rhames essentially does a mash-up of his crime kingpin in “Pulp Fiction” and strongman Luther from the Mission Impossible movies.
Doug Liman (“The Bourne Identity”) directed, and every one of these heavy hitters is helpless when it comes to making the screenplay by Affleck and Chuck MacLean (TV’s “City on a Hill”) feel like more than a doodle on a pitch meeting notepad.
It’s 101 minutes of talented people struggling to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear and coming up with a Filene’s Basement handbag.
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MacDailyNews Take: How about a movie about an endless parade of big-name stars and directors who repeatedly fleece a multi-trillion dollar tech company that’s incapable of recognizing hackneyed ideas and bad scripts?
Oh wait, we’ve seen that one before; and, at the current rate, we’re likely to see it again and again.
See also: Apple’s ‘Argylle’ flop premieres globally on Apple TV+ on April 12th – April 5, 2024
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