By Peter Covino

Entertainment Editor

Next time I head up to Boston, I will make sure I have my six-guns and plenty of ammunition.

Boston, if you can believe what Hollywood tells us, has more gunplay and a higher body count than Detroit and Miami combined.

The city of the Red Sox and baked beans (and The Departed, Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone) comes out with guns blazing once again thanks to Ben Affleck and The Town.

There is a lot to be said for The Town, a film which Affleck stars, co-wrote (and directs in his second effort). But before those finals guns fire in a blaze of glory, The Town loses grips on any sense of reality and becomes pure Hollywood.

At first glance, Affleck has helmed an intelligent thriller if not a bit too talky at times.

Affleck plays Doug MacRay, with his real Boston accent firmly in place. MacRay and best buddy James (Jeremy Renner) live and pull bank jobs and armored car hold-ups in and around Charlestown, a small part of the city that the story tells us has produced more bank robbers and holdup men than any other part of the U.S.

MacRay is the  level-headed one, while James (they also have a few other partners and dress like it is Halloween for each holdup) is a ticking time bomb.

They have just pulled another bank heist as The Town begins, and the guys are meticulous as always  — using bleach to remove DNA traces etc. But this time out they took a hostage briefly, bank employee Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall) and she is talking to the FBI.

So MacRay begins following her around and it isn’t long before the unlikely pair are dating, which leads to the expected complications. It also doesn’t help that she knows one of the bank robbers (James) had a distinctive tattoo on the back of his neck and because MacRay and Claire are dating, James is in the picture sometimes.

Meanwhile, the FBI, namely one astute agent (played by Jon Hamm) is zeroing in on the robbers, and is trying to build a case against them.

Before the film gets to its climax, there is one really good police chase through Boston’s narrow streets.

Our likable Irish hero  (MacRay) is ready to give up his bad ways as he can see what the future might  hold after visiting his incarcerated father (played  by Chris Cooper) but is forced into one more big heist. The neighborhood is controlled by a gangster leader (Pete Postlethwaite) — and this last heist is a somewhat ridiculous endeavor except it does make use of the Red Sox historic Fenway Park. The last guns-a-blazing is almost on par with Pacino’s “say hello to my little friends” in Scarface.

The pat ending doesn’t do much for The Town’s overall appeal either.

Critic's rating: B-

The Town is rated R for violence, language and adult content.

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There is more gangster play way “down south” in Animal Kingdom.

Think Goodfellas gone Down Under and you have a pretty good feel for Animal Kingdom, a crime family movie set in Australia.

Teen Josh (James Freche-ville) has always been protected from that side of the family by his drug-addicted mother. When she dies, the 17-year-old has no one to turn to so he calls Grandma Janine, his mom’s mother and she invites him to move in with her and her three sons.

Poor Josh.

Grandma (Jacki Weaver) is more like Ma Barker or at the very least Livia Soprano, heading up her clan with a kiss on the lips before sending them  out to earn the day’s wage, illegally.

Sure this may all have a familiar ring to it, but the Australian twist always keeps things interesting. And director David Michod knows how to underplay the roles here as well. Grandma is probably a psychopath, but it is very much understated.

Josh knows what the family does and they seem more than willing to have him follow in their footsteps. But when his uncles get involved in the murder of some policemen, Josh has to make some decisions about how far his loyalty should go.

Guy Pearce (Memento), probably the only recognizable person in the cast, plays the police investigator whose  job it is is to convince Josh he isn’t like the rest of the family and needs to turn against them.

And don’t ever under estimate grandma.With her sons locked up, her boys most always come first, so she plans on having Josh killed before he can testify against them.

The ending here is not typically Hollywood either.

Animal Kingdom is rated R for language and violence.