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
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
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