Doug Lehman's crime comedy “The Instigators” (available on Apple TV Plus) is not exactly well received by critics, with 43% on Rotten Tomatoes. This is because the formula seems unlikely to fail. Yet somehow, the sure-fire elements fail at every turn in this tale of two bumbling duos on the run after a botched heist in Boston.

Matt Damon and Casey Affleck have terrible chemistry as the bickering idiot criminals, the plot has no suspense or excitement, and no one is worth rooting for. Of the gorgeous and overstuffed supporting cast, only Hong Chau is relatively unscathed, and the purpose of her role as a psychiatrist is to point out everyone's wrong choices.

If you're looking for more successful heist/chase thrillers, try these five instead.

Casey Affleck's brother Ben did a much better job with his own heist film set in Boston. Affleck's second directorial effort, following his Oscar-nominated debut, “Gone Baby Gone,” is a crime story set in working-class Boston. Affleck plays a bank robber who develops an unscrupulous romantic relationship with a female hostage (Rebecca Hall) while hiding his true identity from her.

Jeremy Renner, Pete Postlethwaite, and Chris Cooper play fellow criminals, and Jon Hamm plays an FBI agent trying to apprehend the gang. They give the rough-hewn characters a lived-in humanity, and Affleck is adept at both staging thrilling heists and car chases and evoking the vibrant community life of the corner of Boston where the film is set.

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Matt Damon and Casey Affleck are among the stellar ensemble cast in Steven Soderbergh's dizzyingly entertaining heist film, set against the glittering backdrop of the Las Vegas Strip The key members of Soderbergh's Ocean's 11, an excellent remake of the 1960 Rat Pack film, are George Clooney as master thief Danny Ocean and Brad Pitt as his right-hand man, Rusty Ryan.

Danny and Rusty assemble 11 friends to rob three casinos owned by tycoon Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), and it is fun to watch their elaborate plan come together. Damon plays pickpocket Linus Caldwell, and Affleck plays one of the two bickering mechanic brothers alongside Scott Caan. While Soderbergh presents a stylish, playful, and sometimes sexy crime drama, they blend perfectly into the larger-than-life group and are as elegantly constructed as Danny's plan.

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Bill Murray's only directorial effort (co-produced with co-director Howard Franklin) is also set primarily in the aftermath of a heist, although in this case the initial heist goes according to plan. The problem arises when the gang, played by Murray, Geena Davis, and Randy Quaid, attempts to escape New York City with the loot.

Their skill in planning and executing a complex million-dollar heist at a high-security bank is impressive, but they are nearly defeated by road construction, fire trucks, and confused cab drivers. Murray infuses the film with his withering sense of humor and a melancholy that would later become highly regarded. It is both an underrated comedy and a strangely sweet tribute to the madness of New York City.

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The Coen brothers know all about incompetent criminals, but none more so than the overly ambitious gym employees played by Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand in this labyrinthine comedy. The Coen brothers ridicule the convoluted plots of spy films like Doug Liman's The Bourne Identity, placing the two dimwits at the center of a secret conspiracy.

These morons believe they can take advantage of classified information accidentally left behind by former CIA agent Osborne Cox (John Malkovich), but the information is not as valuable as they think.

“The CIA boss, played by J.K. Simmons, can't hide his frustration,” he says to his assistant, “but I'm sure you'll be able to find out what he's up to.

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Like Matt Damon's character in “The Instigators,” the brothers played by Chris Pine and Ben Foster in this Western-inspired thriller commit crimes primarily out of necessity. They are deeply in debt thanks to their late mother's predatory loans against the family fortune, and they target only the small local bank branch that holds the debt.

This is just one way that writer Taylor Sheridan and director David McKenzie use the film as a commentary on the struggles of the rural working class. Pine and Foster are in fine form with Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham as the Texas Rangers investigating the robbery. Sheridan's dialogue is full of quirky turns of phrase, and McKenzie captures both the devastation and the heart of the Texas West.

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