The Instigators
Apple TV+ | Release Date: August 2, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
48
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
20
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Total FilmJames MottramAug 1, 2024
Sharply observed with a top-notch cast and a pleasing old-school vibe, The Instigators is tremendously entertaining. Read full review
80
ColliderTania HussainAug 1, 2024
Thanks to a witty script and a charming cast led by Damon and Affleck, The Instigators is a fun heist film with heart that blends the right dose of humor, action, and emotion for a comedy you can watch again and again. Read full review
75
TheWrapMatt GoldbergAug 15, 2024
Although The Instigators can at times feel like a Coen Brothers movie without the polish, there’s enough charm and energy flowing through Doug Liman’s picture to keep the film humming. Read full review
75
Original-CinLiz BraunAug 6, 2024
Fast, funny and entirely forgettable, The Instigators is an entertaining if shopworn heist story. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 1, 2024
The Instigators is unremarkable but consistently amusing, and makes you feel like everyone showed up at the set expecting a party. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJake CoyleAug 1, 2024
Though Liman knows how to mix action and comedy as well as anyone, “The Instigators” is better whenever there’s less going on. Read full review
75
ConsequenceLiz Shannon MillerAug 1, 2024
There’s a lot to be said for a movie that knows exactly what it wants to be and hits that exact mark; it’s not that The Instigators lacks ambition, but like its characters, it doesn’t dream too big. It shows up to do its job — finding the fun. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineRoss McIndoeAug 1, 2024
Like a well-executed heist, the film knows how to get in and get out with minimal fuss. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneDavid FearAug 1, 2024
If nothing else, Damon and Affleck’s Beacon Street Wild Ride reminds you that movie stars plus car crashes, divided by gunshots and laughs, was part of a regular, balanced American-cinema breakfast. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeAug 1, 2024
From a filmmaking perspective, it’s no easy feat taking what looks like so much chaos and organizing it into a character-driven comedy, but that’s just what Affleck and co-writer (and “City on a Hill” series creator) Chuck MacLean have accomplished, giving Liman the blueprint to alternate between unpredictable set-pieces and more relaxed examples of male bonding. Read full review
68
Paste MagazineJesse HassengerAug 2, 2024
None of the players here were in Ben Affleck’s The Town, but this feels like a companion piece to that one, too, in both its entertainment value and occasional overplayed hangdog Damon-Affleck pathos. Read full review
63
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenAug 20, 2024
Much of The Instigators feels a little lost somewhere between Ocean’s Eleven and The Town, but the movie—starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck as desperate strangers who get paired up for an ill-fated heist in Boston—has enough camaraderie between the leads, as well as a sharply comic supporting turn from Hong Chau, to make for a breezy crime farce. Read full review
63
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 8, 2024
Does his film fishtail around narratively? Does it feel overly episodic? Does it lack any sort of stick-to-the-ribs substance? In order: Yes, probably and for sure. But it is also a fun and enjoyable summertime diversion, and sometimes that’s all the message a movie needs. Read full review
60
IGNA.A. Dowd Aug 9, 2024
This buddy comedy lives or dies on your affection for its stars, offering complementary shades of good-natured Bostonian ineptitude. Read full review
60
The New York TimesAlissa WilkinsonAug 8, 2024
So if the plot of “The Instigators” kind of goes nowhere, its characters give it the feel of a hangout movie with some added shootouts and car chases and a few well-timed explosions. And that, at least, is wicked good. Read full review
60
EmpireKambole CampbellAug 1, 2024
The Instigators isn’t exactly revolutionary, but is a good time regardless: an easygoing crime caper offering an excellent cast a fun sandpit in which to snipe at each other. Read full review
60
Screen RantMolly FreemanAug 1, 2024
The Instigators is proof it can be very difficult to balance action, comedy and drama and nail a tone that fits the movie while still staying true to the genres. That said, the movie does have enough comedy, and a strong enough duo with Damon and Affleck, that it's still entertaining and fun to watch. Read full review
60
SlashfilmJeremy MathaiAug 1, 2024
The Instigators makes exceptional use of Damon, Affleck, and the rest of its impeccable roster. It's just a shame that even this cast can't make this add up to more than a movie that's, quite simply, the sum of its parts. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyAug 1, 2024
Besides the cast, the best thing The Instigators has going for it is Liman’s pacing. Maybe in some earlier, irreversibly bygone era it would seem like less of a virtue, but there’s something to be said for a modern director who still has the skills necessary to move from one thing to another with a minimum of wasted time. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredCarolyn JenkinsAug 14, 2024
While surfacing sometimes thanks to a decades-old friendship, 'The Instigators' remains a tonally chaotic sinking boat. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 9, 2024
It’s good to see all these folks together in the same picture. But Affleck and Chuck MacLean don’t script enough clever bits, smart action beats and funny lines to let “The Instigators” instigate much of anything. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 8, 2024
The Instigators isn’t that bad, but it’s lazy, low-stakes stuff. Everyone on screen has done and been better. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 8, 2024
That incredible cast is utterly wasted, with major talents such as Perlman, Jones, Molina, Rhames and Hauser stuck in small supporting roles, playing underwritten, clichéd characters who drift in and out of the movie for a scene or two and then are forgotten. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesTim GriersonAug 5, 2024
There are laughs and clever bits of business in “The Instigators,” but there’s never a reason to care. Read full review
50
ABC NewsPeter TraversAug 2, 2024
Since heist movies are a dime a dozen, don’t get your hopes up. But thanks to the easy chemistry between Matt Damon and Casey Affleck, there is the kick of an acting job well done. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreAug 1, 2024
More than anything, The Instigators is ethnic comedy if being a white guy from Boston counts as its own ethnicity, an argument that Damon and the Afflecks have spent a good portion of their careers making. Those local specifics and in-jokes may not amount to much, but they are what distinguishes this film from other half-baked crime movies. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyAug 1, 2024
It’s not terrible but it’s far from great, instead landing in that dispiriting morass best identified as “passable entertainment,” designed to make critics grasp for new ways to say “Meh.” Read full review
50
The Daily BeastNick SchagerAug 1, 2024
The sole thing it instigates is frustration over its lethargic unoriginality. Read full review
50
IndieWireDavid EhrlichAug 1, 2024
Damon and Affleck are low-key one of the most perfectly measured duos of the last 25 years . . . so it’s no surprise that they bounce off of each other so well here, but their natural chemistry is more pronounced in the context of a movie where everything around them feels so forced, and their characters’ grounding idiocy is more refreshing in the context of a movie that betrays that realism at every turn. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeAug 22, 2024
It should be pulpy fun powered by car chases and zippy repartee, but The Instigators is a dispiriting and predictable drag of a movie. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerAug 8, 2024
Lackluster and slow even in its supposedly hi-octane chase sequences, much of the blame lies with director Doug Liman. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyAug 1, 2024
The Instigators is little more than a stacked cast list on an Apple budget, waiting for a good script to materialise. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawAug 1, 2024
Some passable entertainment here but there’s not much adrenaline. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonAug 1, 2024
It’s sad when a film wastes the talents of so many fine actors. Sad for us, that is, because I’m sure they were all paid handsomely. Read full review
37
Washington PostTy BurrAug 6, 2024
If you’re already a subscriber to Apple TV Plus and have absolutely nothing else to do, “The Instigators” is worth a look. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithAug 1, 2024
Mr. Liman handles each plot beat maladroitly, piling one utterly absurd contrivance or coincidence upon another. Read full review
25
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezAug 5, 2024
This is a B-movie of the week at best, which should be starring also-ran actors looking for a paycheck, not some of Hollywood’s finest. Read full review
0
RogerEbert.comRobert DanielsAug 2, 2024
This Apple TV heist flick is underwritten, dreary, tedious, inert, and without any stakes. I almost hesitate to write too much about it because this soulless dreck feels so unworthy of adding blemishes to the white page. Read full review
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