Movie review: Matt Damon, Casey Affleck can't elevate generic 'Instigators'

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- The Instigators , in theaters Friday and on Apple TV+ on Aug. 9, cannot live up to the Ocean's movies of which Matt Damon and Casey Affleck are two of the 11. Perhaps they should not attempt heists without Brad Pitt or George Clooney.

Rory (Damon) is an ex-marine in therapy and desperate for exactly $32,480 to pay off lawyers and back child support. So, he takes a job for Mr. Besegai (Michael Stuhlbarg) to rob Mayor Miccelli's (Ron Perlman) victory party.

Cobby (Affleck) is the ex-con veteran on the team. As is de rigueur in this genre, the job doesn't go according to plan, so mismatched Rory and Cobby go on the run together, with Cobby nursing an injury from the botched heist.

The Instigators, written by Affleck and Chuck MacLean, moves through the tropes at a brisk, if familiar, clip. Cobby notices details that alert him to dangers early because he's been on jobs before.

There are car chases full of vehicles coordinated on the streets and multiple heists in physical buildings. That is welcome in an era dominated by movies filmed against green screens for digital backgrounds or LED screens with prerecorded backgrounds.

However, it doesn't measure up to the action greats, or even director Doug Liman's own Bourne Identity or Road House just earlier this year.

The juxtaposition of Rory and Cobby falls entirely flat. Cobby tries to teach Rory how to talk tough on his first mission. Rory tries again later in the movie and it's even less funny.

Cobby keeps pointing out things he thinks are funny because Rory never laughs through this crisis, but Rory is right. Nothing is especially funny, except for Cobby making a neighborhood blow into his breathalyzer before the heist.

Even trying to put a twist on genre conventions becomes too obvious. Rory takes his psychiatrist (Hong Chau) hostage, and she psychoanalyzes them during familiar bullet extraction and hostage negotiation scenes, but the observations add neither humor nor complexity to the formula.

It is a shame The Instigators couldn't make a stronger case for practical, star-driven dramas. Those kinds of movies are in short supply in 2024. The ones that do get made can barely afford to be generic and forgettable.

Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.