Broken City Reviews

For the first time around, Allen Hughes was coming up with a new directing effort without his brother Albert and even though it barely got noticed when it was released, I still wanted to check it out. To be honest, even though I really loved 'Menace II Society', nothing else the Hughes brothers have done afterwards really managed to impress me and this movie was another fine example. I mean, sure, it was watchable but the plot was just really generic and fairly predictable. To make it more complicated than it actually was, they threw so many names that I wasn't really able to remember exactly who was who after 10 minutes. At least, there was a decent cast involved (Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jeffrey Wright, Barry Pepper, Natalie Martinez, Kyle Chandler) and I was above all impressed by Russell Crowe who was completely convincing in this part. On the other hand, I wish I could say the same about Mark Wahlberg but it is exactly with this kind of movies that you can see how limited his acting range can be. I mean, the guy is charismatic, I'll give you that, but through the whole thing, I didn't see much mental struggle or emotion coming from this actor. Apparently, Michael Fassbender declined to play the lead but some strong actor like him would have really helped this flick . Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I thought it was still a decent watch, even if it was completely forgettable

The cast and Catherine's beauty is the only distinction of this cosnpirative thriller thas mixes -who cares to understand- all kind of corruption and obscure NY forces.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The plot follows Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg), a former dirty cop turned private eye, who's hired by the Mayor of New York City (Russell Crowe) to find out who his wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is having an affair with. After he seemingly finds the answer, things get even more complicated.
Honestly, I have very little to say about this movie. It was middle-of-the-road, it was mediocre, and it didn't leave much of an impression on me at all. I'm not entirely sure why, though.
Maybe it's the familiarity of it all. As the film progresses, it gets increasingly predictable, and the ending packs no surprises at all.
I do kind of like how Billy turns against the mayor halfway through the movie, but I just didn't care for everything that followed. The mayor's grand scheme just comes off to me as a cliché.
Also, there are two action sequences in the second half, and they're both incompetently filmed.
In any case, I simply didn't care what was happening throughout the movie, and I just found the whole thing bland and forgettable.

My rating: 45%