The Instigators showcases sad trend in streaming

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (producing here) are at it again with a Boston-set heist film that cashes in on a disturbing movement in modern cinema.

With a cast of Oscar winners and nominees and trendy names, The Instigators looks the part of solid entertainment and passes its 100-minute runtime with relative ease.

But the latest from director Doug Liman (Prime Video's Road House remake) has zero ambition except to let Damon and Casey Affleck banter in the kind of mismatched buddy road comedy Hollywood has perfected over the last 50 years.

It's shiny, sleek, and occasionally funny with multiple excellent car chases through the streets of Boston.

But it is filmmaking financed with the simplest of goals — gain subscribers.

Nothing goes deeper than surface level.

Damon (looking haggard and weathered like Ray Liotta, R.I.P.) is an ex-Marine divorced father looking for a specific sum of $32,840, while Casey Affleck is a brash, unfeeling ex-con. After a botched robbery of a Trumpian politician (Ron Perlman), the two go on the lam.

No character is given any depth greater than their job title.

Apple TV, and moreso Netflix, might as well use AI to spit out a film outline with a genre, bankable stars, and a talented director.

With Liman behind the camera, and a cast featuring Hong Chau, Perlman, Paul Walter Hauser, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alfred Molina, Toby Jones, Ving Rhames, and Jack Harlow (much improved since his White Men Can't Jump remake), this should have been something more akin to Affleck's The Town.

Sadly, it's just an average time-waster.

5 out of 10