In “The Instigators,” Matt Damon and Casey Affleck want to steal embezzled funds, but the whole thing backfires. The action thriller from “The Bourne Identity” creator Doug Liman is now available to stream on AppleTV+.
The focus of “The Instigators” is Rory (Matt Damon). The Boston native doesn’t know what to do anymore. He’s broke, has a mortgage to pay off and is behind on his son’s custody payments. If things continue like this, he faces a restraining order. Rory wonders whether he’s really tried everything to get his life back on track. He then gives himself the answer by deciding to obtain the money through criminal means.
To do this, he contacts the devious Mr. Besegai (Michael Stuhlbarg), who puts him in touch with the ex-convict (Casey Affleck) and the young but quite level-headed Scalvo (Jack Harlow). Together they are to steal the embezzled funds of the corrupt mayor Micelli (Ron Perlman) on the coming election night. But their plan goes horribly wrong. This means that Rory and co. soon have to flee not only from the police, but also from some gangsters bent on revenge.
“The Instigators” – streaming from today!
Sounds interesting? Then be happy, because the action thriller from “The Bourne Identity” and “Road House” creator Doug Liman starts today directly with AppleTV+ subscription.
And we also have the right answer to the question of whether “The Instigators” is worth it at all: absolutely! The official FILMSTARTS review gave it a solid 3 out of 5 possible stars. The conclusion of editor-in-chief Christoph Petersen is as follows:
“When Matt Damon drums up support among his friends and acquaintances to film in his hometown of Boston, you can be sure that the film will have an outstanding cast, right down to the smallest supporting role. And indeed, the renowned cast is the absolute highlight of this laconic heist comedy. It’s just a shame that the script has a lot of characters but few surprises and the production rarely picks up speed.”
By the way, we did a little quiz with Matt Damon to mark the start of the film. You can see how he did and what surprised his colleague Casey Affleck in the following video:
