The Yards Reviews

In my opinion, James Gray is one of the most underrated director at work nowadays and I had been waiting 6 long years to finally watch his second directing feature. Once again, I was blown away by the directing. Indeed, he managed to make some really simple shots look pretty gorgeous and he has created a realistic, immersive and completely believable world full of small details. You could almost smell it. Furthermore, there was also an awesome cast (Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, Charlize Theron, James Caan, Ellen Burstyn, Faye Dunaway) and they all delivered some very good performances. Unfortunately, I must say that the story was rather underwhelming. Indeed, they would like us to believe that it is some kind of grand ganster drama like 'The Godfather' but the plot never gets spellbinding enough. Another thing that bothered me was also the main charater. I mean, I don't blame Wahlberg as he gave a decent performance, but they obviously wanted us to care for him, to think that he was a nice guy, a poor lamb victim of the circumstances but it didn't really work for me. At the end, he goes all Serpico on this old colleagues and gets off the hook but, in fact, he did knock out a cop into a coma and it is not like anyone forced him to do all this illegal stuff, his uncle even proposed him a decent job but he refused to take it. To conclude, I thought it was rather flawed but thanks to the amazing directing and acting, I still enjoyed it and it is definitely worth a look.

This was average, disappointing I must admit but it could have been worse. I was expecting a lot from this movie, the cast is brilliant but somehow I just didn't enjoy watching this as much as I thought I would.

The Yards is the story of Leo Handler, a man who has just been released from jail and all he wants is to be a normal guy and make his family proud without getting himself into trouble. He decides to try working with his best friend to earn some cash, but he has no idea what he's getting himself into, it all seems mysterious to him. But after one night everything changes, the plan goes wrong and suddenly Leo is seen by a cop and from there everyone is a threat to him.. he is wrongfully accused of murder and he only has his sick mother and cousin to take care of him.

Mark Wahlberg was very good again, he really suited his role and made this worth watching. Joaquin Phoenix always looks evil to me, I don't know why.. but he did play his part quite well, it was just a shame the story didn't develop as well as it could have.

The ending deserves to be mentioned, It was sad but eventually everything seemed right and it was a good place to finish it. I guess it wouldn't have been nearly as good if everyone survived. Overall this was decent but again not as good as it could have been. I can't point out exactly where things went wrong but for one thing I know there was nothing wrong with the cast. It is worth watching and seeing for yourself, but just don't expect anything amazing.