How The Town (2010) Quietly Copied Set It Off (1996) – Two Bank Robbery Movies That Feel Strangely Familiar
Ben Affleck’s The Town is a slick Boston heist thriller, but it shares surprising similarities with the 1996 classic Set It Off . From the criminal falling for a bank worker to the deadly escape — did Hollywood borrow more than it admits? When I watch crime movies, I’m always looking for fresh twists on old formulas. But sometimes you spot something that makes you pause the screen and say, “Wait… I’ve seen this before.” That happened to me recently when I rewatched Ben Affleck’s The Town (2010) back-to-back with F. Gary Gray’s Set It Off (1996). On the surface, they feel very different — one is a gritty white working-class Boston story starring Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner, the other is a powerful Black female-led heist film with Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, and Kimberly Elise. Yet the core emotional beats are remarkably similar. Here are the biggest overlaps that stood out to me: 1. The Criminal Falls in Love with the B...