A square-jawed, cleft-chinned heartthrob who can really act (and write, and direct, and smoke dejectedly). The man has done it all in his career of more than thirty years, including winning Best Original Screenplay in his mid-twenties (for Good Will Hunting) and Best Picture, for his 2012 drama Argo. His latest film, Animals on Netflix, sees Matt Damon’s BFF play a Los Angeles mayoral candidate who races against the clock to rescue his kidnapped son.
It’s a solid flick; more than worth adding to your Netflix queue when it drops on October 9. Sure, not everything Affleck has made has been gold—you remember Gigli?—but he is rarely the worst thing about them. From Hollywood wunderkind to being married to not one but two different Jennifers, Affleck has grown up before our eyes.
To celebrate the release of Animals, the editors of Esquire have taken it upon themselves to rank every single movie made by and/or starring Dunkin’s biggest fan. Yes, even his Batman movies. Behold the official word on the Book of Affleck—and yes, he is still the bomb in Phantoms.
It sounds impossible, but at the height of his Hollywood fame, Ben Affleck had at least one direct-to-DVD movie: the 2006 clunker Man About Town. Affleck plays a successful Hollywood talent agent whose private journals become public, which threatens to unravel his whole world. Say what you will about Gigli, but like, Affleck actually tried in Gigli.
In Man About Town, it feels like he’s sleepwalking through it. The last thing you’ll want to do is watch this Netflix stinker. Despite the additional star power of Anne Hathaway and Willem Dafoe, this incomprehensible spy thriller stars Affleck as an ambassador who goes toe-to-toe with Hathaway, playing an overworked journalist.
The plot is nonsense and infuriating, and not even A-list talent can save a grade-F thriller. Frankly, The Flash should be Ben Affleck’s worst movie. It’s one of the dumbest and ugliest superhero movies ever made, and a poor adaptation of the actually-great comic book storyline Flashpoint.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
