I didn’t even recognize Ben Affleck as an overweight realtor focusing on boring condos. The cast went well together and the film moved fast, perhaps too fast, as the main heist was finished far before the half hour mark. The questions raised by the film are bigger than the action plot itself, and focus around several points.
The prime question is over the value of human life. Putting your life on the line for a big cash payout, a retirement package, a college fund for your kids, there is always someone willing to do this, but what about the tens of thousands of combat soldiers who do so for less than what a bank teller makes? The average soldier does the same effective work as these mercenaries do, but they do it legitimately and with the backing of a government, and for far less. Even the career path itself, extra-judicial killing, seems justified in their eyes but the collateral damage left behind is as staggering as the questions left regarding whether killing the head solves the social problems that build that hierarchy in the first place.
The ending leaves no one satisfied, and the lives lost seem just like small plot points to be papered over. Still, the film was a fun ride, and if one has some time to ponder, it contains elements that may leave more questions than answers.
Rating: A well-worn pickup built for pounding beaches