Not many critically acclaimed movies can claim they've inspired real-life crimes, but even a year after its release "The Town" is still racking up copy-catters.
Brooklyn burglars who have been on the prowl since 2010 were caught red-handed earlier this week, and police say they confessed to using some techniques that the Beantown crew used onscreen to rob businesses. The nail-biting drama featured scenes where Doug MacRay (writer/director Ben Affleck) and his James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner) used bleach to cover their tracks and wore stylish miners' hats with lights to find their way after cutting the power for the biz they were robbing.
Unlike the criminals in "The Town," the five robbers in NYC stuck to small businesses and only made off with $217,000. Their sticky fingers stuck to local stores, including a candy store, delis, and pizzerias, mostly in Brooklyn.
In May, two thieves robbed a bank near Chicago using the super-creepy nun outfits from "The Town" as inspiration.
Strangely enough, the GOP turned to "The Town" as inspiration, too, albeit of a somewhat different sort. The Washington Post reported that Republicans got in the mood to discuss Speaker of the House John Boehner's deficit plan by watching a scene between Affleck and Renner. It was supposed to foster unity between the squabbling GOP peeps, but the scene is actually about the two guys planning a crime. It seems the line about how they're "gonna hurt some people" was conveniently left out of the clip that the Republicans watched. (Or was it??)
Ben Affleck told Movieline, "I don't know if this is a compliment or the ultimate repudiation — but if they're going to be watching movies, I think 'The Company Men' is more appropriate." Affleck costarred in "The Company Men" with Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper as executives whose lives are radically upended when they're laid off. Oooh, burn!
Affleck is currently hard at work on the thriller "Argo," which he is both directing and starring in; it's slated for a 2012 release. Meanwhile, Renner has taken on the role of Hawkeye in the Marv-y blockbuster "The Avengers." Neither will inspire copycat crimes -- probably.
