Continuing on from Gone Baby Gone, in which Ben Affleck goes 1 for 1 in films he's directed. So, does The Town follow in the same footsteps or does he suffer from the sophomore jinx? It's the former as he knocks this one clear out of the park. Fenway Park that is. I love my Heist flicks and this one is fantastic. The story is great, if not entirely original. You can see that they were inspired by Heat. But the actors that populate the cast make this one snap, crackle and pop. A few of the actors from Gone Baby Gone make their way over here as well to join in on the fun with Ben, Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm and the mindblowing performance by Blake Lively. I was very impressed by everyone in the cast, especially Renner and Lively. But the top dog is definitely Affleck who turns in his finest performance as an actor. I never thought I'd say that about him.

With this only being his second film Affleck has directed up to this point (2010), it's clear that he has a certain style developing as a filmmaker. I love the way he shoots his scenes. If you look closely at both Gone Baby Gone and The Town, aesthetically they are very similar, but there are all those small "throwaway scenes" that I caught in both that another director would have bypassed altogether. With this being an exceptional Heist film, which I am a sucker for, this is a definite Buy for me. I can't wait to check out Argo.

Yep, agree, Affleck's real talent is directing. I honestly don't have problems with his acting either. Just some projects are questionable.

Kind of... but I see that in a lot of actors. Some of the worst are John Wayne, Helen Hunt, Ben Stiller and many more. They portray themselves and have nothing else. No acting... just doing, which is fine, but in the back of my mind, these folks are calling in their performances.