THE TOWN – ben affleck – 8.1 / 10

Though it’s a fairly conventional film in a genre that’s been done to death (Michael Mann’s Heat being the most obvious reference point), The Town, Ben Affleck’s second outing as co-writer / director is nonetheless a very satisfying film.  It’s a solid, sturdy heist movie, constructed with great care and careful attention to detail.  And though it doesn’t quite rise to the heights of Affleck’s previous film (the excellent Gone Baby Gone), The Town is about as good as this type of movie can be.  Its ambitions may be modest, but it more than achieves them.

LOST: SEASON SIX – 5.2 / 10

After intercutting events on the island with flashbacks for three seasons, flashforwards for one season and between two separate timelines for one season, the Lost writers decided, in the sixth and final season, to intercut events on the island with so-called flash-sideways to what at first appears to be an alternate timeline and is finally revealed to be a sort of purgatory.  It’s a decision that makes sense insofar as the show’s creators had tried everything else so why not?  But this structure, and especially the decision not to reveal the nature of the flash-sideways universe until the finale, ends up fatally crippling what should have been the series’ triumphant victory lap.

THE AMERICAN – anton corbijn – 4.1 / 10

With very few exceptions, almost every film about a hitman tells one of three stories: the hitman falls in love (usually with the target), the hitman wants to retire after one last job or the hitman becomes a target himself.  The American manages to squeeze all three of these overused tropes into one film, creating a sort of hitman cliché amalgam.  The filmmakers also toss in some teeth-grindingly obvious symbolism and a couple of the stalest stereotypes going (the priest with a tragic past and the hooker with a heart of gold) in what appears to be some sort of weird attempt to create the most cliché hitman film possible.