What is Doug Liman's problem with movie titles? After a nearly two-decade run of major bangers like Singers, Go, The Bourne Identity, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, he got jinxed by studio interference which turned his 2014 Tom Cruise-Emily Blunt sci-fi action classic based on the manga entitled All You Need Is Kill into Edge of Tomorrow which sounded like a soap opera sponsored by a feminine hygiene product manufacturer whose clientele was too sensitive to handle the Twilight movies. The freaking tagline for the movie - Live Die Repeat - was a better title and they've somewhat tried to undo the damage by having it listed on digital retailers as Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow which was too little, too late.
Since then he's had a mix of box office disappointments (American Made with Tom Cruise), disastrous flops (Chaos Walking) and direct to streaming dreck like Locked Down, a blah Wuhan-lockdown set romcom-heist flick. His last effort was the Amazon Prime Original remake (heh, original remake) of Road House which got most of its press for Liman's very loud and public whining about its distribution and his payment and Conor MacGregor's weird performance. It was modestly entertaining, but disposable.
Now he's already back with another more-or-less direct-to-streaming movie for Apple TV+, The Instigators, which having seen the movie makes no sense whatsoever and doesn't even hit at what this surprisingly entertaining and energetic heist dramedy has to offer. The marketing for this was so poor that I didn't even see a trailer for it and only happened to catch it because we'd just resubscribed to ATV+ to watch some series and it had just dropped. Other than starring Matt Damon and being directed by Liman, I really had no idea what this was going to be.
Matt Damon (say it!) stars as Rory, a divorced former-Marine who is hinting to his therapist, Dr. Rivera (Hong Chau), that he may be suicidal. Seeking to make some quick cash to pay off back child support and be able to see his son again, he joins up with heist crew masterminded by crime boss Besegai (Michael Stuhlbarg) with Scalvo (rapper Jack Harlow) and Cobby (Casey Affleck, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Chuck Maclean).
The plan is simple: The Boston Mayoral runoff between incumbent Mayor Miccelli (Ron Perlman) and young reformer Choi (Ronny Cho) is happening and Miccelli is expected to win and thus will be receiving massive amounts of cash bribes at the victory party which will stored in a safe for pickup the morning after. The trio of robbers are to slip into the wharfside venue before dawn when only a skeleton crew of workers would be there, get someone to open the safe before the armored truck arrives, and take the rowboat of cash out of there. Easy peasy and a good split of a good take in the cards. However, Rory just wants the $32,480 he needs - if there's more, he doesn't want it, if there's less, Besegai will have to pay him the difference.
However, the plan goes disastrously wrong as the boat develops a leak and can't be used as an escape and the venue's kitchen is packed with workers. Apparently the election is undecided, but appears Choi may upset, and Miccelli is refusing to concede so the party is dragging on until the dawn. Complicating matters is the fact that so much bribe money had come in there had already been two drops to armored cars made and there is very little cash in the safe. REALLY complicating matters is when trying to find their way out of the building they wander into the area where Miccelli, his lawyer, Flynn (Toby Jones), and others are waiting. Scalvo decides to rob them as well, taking a bracelet from Miccelli, before the police chief and Scalvo end up killing each other in a gunfight draw. Rory and Cobby escape in the anticipated armored car.
With their clean caper now a massive clusterfark with a dead cop, everyone is very interested in catching our dunderhead duo especially Special Operations Unit Detective Toomey (Ving Rhames), dispatched by Miccelli to retrieve the bracelet and Booch (Paul Walter Hauser), sent by Besegai to retrieve the money and tie up the loose ends Rory and Cobby represent and by tie up I mean murder them.
To try and recap what happens next would spoil the surprises, but for once in a very long time I had no idea where the story was going to go next and end up. Sure, it's a safe presumption that the two Big Stars' characters probably are wearing plot armor that prevents death, but the twists, turns and double-backs kept the mystery of how the heck they were going to get out of this mess alive.
Affleck and Maclean's script keeps things moving with the emphasis on entertainment rather than trying to make lots of Acting Showcase Moments focusing more on character details like how Cobby needs to have a child blow into his motorcycle's Breathalyzer interlock to get it started (a gag which pays off at the end) or how everyone in town seems to understand Det. Toomey operates on the Dirty Harry side of the law and allow him to do what he wants as Alfred Molina's baker associate of Besagai experiences.
Liman seems in far better form than Road House or Locked Down exhibited with the few chase scenes cleanly executed while balancing the dramedic elements of the story. The performances are all good though Damon's passive Rory may be too laid back for some tastes.
With such a stacked cast, it's odd that Apple took such a low-key approach to The Instigators release beginning with the title. An instigator is someone who provokes conflict and neither Rory nor Cobby set out to stir the pots and are more concerned with escaping the blowback. I don't have a better title than The Instigators in mind at the moment, but it doesn't change that it's a weak title.
While other critics and the herds at IMDB seem more immune to The Instigators' charms, it's a tidy 101-minute long romp which will keep you guessing and not bore you with self-importance. If you have ATV+, give it a watch, you're paying for it.
Score: 8.5/10. Catch it on Apple TV+.
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