Damon, Affleck offer lots of laughs in 'The Instigators'

Apple TV+ has great TV shows. Its movies are more hit and miss. The most recent original film on the streaming service is "The Instigators," starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck. It's an entertaining film with more laughs than I expected. The film is available only on Apple TV+, but you can get the service for only $9.99 for an entire month and cancel anytime.The movie opens in Boston with Rory (Damon) speaking with his therapist, Donna Rivera (Hong Chau), at a facility for veterans. Rory insists he is doing fine, that he has no intention of killing himself. At least not today. He did make a deal with himself that if he didn't feel any better in a year he would cash in his chips. That was about a year ago.At the same time Cobby (Affleck) is having a small boy blow into the interlock device for his motorcycle that prohibits him from starting the bike if he's been drinking. The boy's breath passes the test and Cobby roars away on his motorcycle. Directly to a bar where he has a few more beers.Scalvo (Jack Harlow) is a low-level hustler whose big mouth gets him in trouble with Mr. Besegai (Michael Stuhlbarg), a crime boss in Boston you do not want to cross. Scalvo is going to make it up to Besegai by getting a crew together and pulling a heist. Scalvo calls Rory and Cobby.The heist is an unusual one, to say the least. The long-time mayor of Boston is facing a run-off election that he will surely win. The victory party on the night of election is in a building on the wharf. It's well known that the mayor is corrupt and everyone who wants something from the mayor for the next four years will be at the party with bags of cash to secure the mayor's cooperation. At least $300,000 will be in the safe. And Scalvo, Rory and Cobby are going to steal it all.Before watching the film, I knew that some type of crime caper would be involved with the plot, but I wasn't expecting how many times I would laugh at some of the ridiculous hijinks in the movie. It was a nice surprise that an action-comedy actually turned out to be funny.This type of movie relies more on the chemistry between the actors and their comedic timing than the plausibility of the plot. Casey Affleck and Matt Damon make for a good comedic duo, playing off each other's strengths. Affleck is the motormouth who never stops talking for more than a few moments at a time, even if he keeps a blank look on his face the entire time.He talks when they are robbing, when they are running, when they are driving and even when they are hiding and trying to evade capture.Damon's character is a criminal newbie who speaks only when necessary and is one of the worst robbers seen on the screen in recent history. He's so bad it's funny. His character's penchant for quiet incompetence works well with Affleck's never-ending soliloquies and questions. Affleck is the funnier of the two in this film – he brings a dry, deadpan humor that never stops. The two have good chemistry with each other and with Hong Chau as the sane one of the three.As for the actual plot, well, it's only okay. Boston's three worst criminals royally botch a job and go on the run trying to escape the corrupt police and politicians. That's it. There's not much of a backstory for the characters and the ending is ludicrous. As a local famous author has said, you don't have a story until something goes wrong, and something went wrong for Scalvo, Rory and Cobby even before the heist began. That's the best thing the writers did for this film, they put roadblocks up from the very beginning and it was funny to see how the characters would navigate each one. The movie is really more of a buddy comedy with a prolonged chase than a heist film.Don't try to take the movie seriously or you won't enjoy it. Sit back, have a piece of pizza and enjoy the boys hilariously making their way around Boston stepping into harm's way at every turn.Grade: B+Rated R for pervasive language and some violence.•••Bradley Griffith is a local attorney and longtime film buff.