The runtime of The Instigators is 1 hour and 41 minutes. Yet, it took me 4 hours to watch this film, thanks to the constant buffering. At one point, I got so frustrated with the buffering problem that I opened Twitter. Surprisingly, I came across a tweet where a user expressed his love for the video store era. The first comment on the post talked about the joy of holding a physical disc and reading the synopsis on the backside of the cover. If I had been sent a physical copy of The Instigators, I surely wouldn't have to go through so many technical pauses. I checked my Internet speed by running HD videos on other sites like Netflix, Prime Video, and YouTube and didn't face any issues. I somehow completed The Instigators, and while the buffering thing did spoil my movie-watching experience, I was still able to detect the actual flaws of this Doug Liman production. This is the kind of film you watch on a lazy afternoon, and after the end credits disappear, you realize that some portions of the film have already evaporated from your head. There is not a single scene that looks special. Despite the presence of sufficient talent both in front and behind the camera, everything appears impersonal.
That's unfortunate because some of the scenes initially look promising. When Rory (Matt Damon), Cobby (Casey Affleck), and Scalvo (Jack Harlow) go on a mission to steal money from Mayor Miccelli (Ron Perlman), they encounter amusing obstacles like finding more kitchen workers than they had hoped for and not finding the amount of cash they wanted to rob. While escaping the building, they get confused and arrive in front of Miccelli and his team. All this situation becomes more chaotic due to Rory and Cobby's inexperience in the heist. In front of the kitchen staff, Scalvo has to remind Rory that he has a gun that can be used to threaten everybody. During the planning and preparation phase, Rory takes notes because of "too many instructions." Furthermore, he and Cobby irritate Scalvo and his boss with logical questions. Rory's doubts are meant to be taken as a joke, but you don't find yourself laughing. There are other similar moments, like the one where a police officer tells another officer to return to Vermont or the one where Cobby and Rory debate whether they should go to Canada or rob a bank, where you notice the joke but don't laugh at it. The humor in The Instigators is unforced. It seems to arise naturally from the story. Since the filmmakers try to be casually funny, the jokes don't explode with comic energy. This almost renders them as disposable as the story.
The "story" here is nothing but an attempt to humorously twist and tweak the tropes of heist movies. The robbers in The Instigators are neither smooth talkers nor stylish. They don't even manage to run away with the money. The mayor sends a police officer (Ving Rhames) after Cobby and Rory to retrieve his grandfather's golden bracelet. While the two men are on the run, they share their personal stories, which sounds perfunctory. Rory's sad domestic drama doesn't mix well with the film's comedy. After some time, Rory's psychiatrist, Dr. Donna Rivera (Hong Chau), also gets entangled in the mess. All this should be entertaining, but Liman is only able to give his images energy during the chase scenes. Everything else feels weak. Damon is good, though he doesn't do anything exceptional on the screen. Chau's talents are wasted, and Affleck's acting is limp. The Instigators ends up developing romantic feelings between Rivera and Cobby, which comes across as unconvincing. It seems to be inserted with the logic that when you see a boy and a girl bickering, it means they will form an intimate relationship. Never mind. The relationship looks as enduring as this forgettable film.
Final Score- [4.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times
Premiere Date: Aug 09, 2024, on Apple TV+