Just as Paul Thomas Anderson’s films will forever be tied to the San Fernando Valley, and just as Martin Scorsese’s films will forever be tied to Queens, New York, Matt Damon and Casey Affleck will never be able to shake their association with the city of Boston. In theory, it makes perfect sense to pair them together in Doug Liman’s Beantown-based buddy-crime action-comedy film The Instigators – though perhaps there should have been a better reason for them to be with one another. The duo get put through the paces in a by-the-numbers caper that has enough fun, but should have been much more fun than the end result.

The Instigators – which is quickly being punted to AppleTV+ after the briefest and smallest of theatrical offerings – feels right up Liman’s wheelhouse, after directing blockbuster-lite fare like Mr. and Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Identity, but there isn’t much style or substance to be found here. Damon and Affleck have a good rapport as rapscallions with differing motivations and self-images who are hired to rob Boston’s crooked mayor Micceli (Ron Perlman), but screenwriters Chuck MacLean and Affleck paint nearly every character and action with a broad brush, leaving little room for nuance or depth. As Rory, Damon makes the most of what he’s given, as a dad who simply wants to provide for his son and has no business pursuing a life of crime, but we hardly learn more about him than this. Affleck’s Cobby is a screw-up alcoholic with no delusions of grandeur, mostly robbing us of any rooting interest in his well-being.

There’s something inherently fun about a group of schmucks quickly getting in over their heads in a world where they don’t belong, but The Instigators doesn’t lean far enough into its wacky premise. Rory and Cobby undoubtedly fit the bill as unexperienced crooks, often improvising their way out of trouble and evading both the cops and the mob men who’ve hired them, once they discover the big score they were promised only boils down to a couple hundred dollars.

I just can’t help but feel like the film takes the potential of its premise – to say nothing of its star-studded cast, including Michael Stuhlbarg, Alfred Molina, Ving Rhames, and Hong Chau – and does nothing distinctive or genuinely fun with what it’s given. Liman directs the action scenes well enough, but it strangely doesn’t hold a candle in this regard to his other 2024 output, the otherwise dreadful Road House remake. There just isn’t enough there there with The Instigators – it’s not bad enough to be contemptable, but not good enough to be recommendable, even as a “what should we watch tonight while we do other chores?” pick.

Even the most middling AppleTV+ films at least have something worth discussing, like the misbegotten Argylle and its goofy action choreography, or Greyhound and Tom Hanks’ gritty performance. The Instigators threatens to belong in the middle of the streamer’s offerings, a slight but forgettable footnote in the careers of cast and crew who have done, and will do, bigger and better things.

The Instigators is in select theaters now and will be available to stream on AppleTV+ on August 9.

OSCAR POTENTIAL:

• None.