One of my all time favorites.

Nice effects though.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

A cops kill a guy on the street in NY. Surprisingly he's brought to trial. Unsurprisingly the charges are dropped. But that moment the chief of police informs the mayor that they've found an eye witness. The cop is let go from the force and becomes a private detective.One day he gets a call from the mayor. He wants him to trail his wife because he thinks she's cheating on him. On top of that, it's election season and a recent billion dollar land deal has the mayor on the defensive against the moral leftist candidate.Taggart, the detective, follows the mayor's wife and discovers she's seeing the campaign manager of her husband's opponent no less. We learn more about Taggart. He's married to a lovely actress. Of course he used to be an alcoholic (are there any non-alcoholic cops in NY according to Hollywood?) but for her sake has recovered. He doesn't fit into her group of indie artists. On the day of the premiere of her indie flick, he starts drinking again after seeing the rough sex scene she performed. Turns out her sister was killed in her neighborhood, that Taggart used to patrol. In fact, the dead guy from the intro was the sister's killer who avoided jail due to a technicality. Convenient coincidences.In the meantime there are some surprises about the relationship between the wife and the campaign manager and about the land deal. Taggart gets paid by the mayor and could have let the whole thing go. But when the campaign manager ends up shot dead and Taggart could be implicated, he decides that he's going to take the mayor down. While the mayor and the whole land deal appear dirty, the still does well in the final debate. There just is no smoking guy. Taggart will attempt to procure the smoking gun but the mayor has some cards up his sleeve as well.The script of Broken City had a lot of potential, which the producers (Wahlberg among them) recognized and threw a lot of money at the production by hiring a strong cast. Unfortunately, what was needed was another writer to polish the script. There are some excesses in the form of downright absurd lines. Direction is alright, except when the camera apes those dumb hospital shows and starts rotating in circles.What both the writer and director failed to do though is focus on the story. Instead they focused on the Wahlberg character and his assistant for some reason. What should be a thrilling investigation and discovery of corruption (as the misleading title would indicate) and of a corrupt man is rather a letdown. In fact this story doesn't even bother in presenting the villain as much of a villain, certainly nothing that would raise eyebrows in NY and even less after the Supreme Court's eminent domain decision.

(28%) Guess what? Politics is dirty, filled with rich jerks using their heightened influence to push the rules to one side so they can do whatever they want. That's the already well known message here with zero of anything else to make this well-cast flop anything more than a limp, quite dull miss-hit. This has three actors who are more than capable to lead a film by themselves, yet this feels oddly directionless, uninteresting, and tepid. What also doesn't help is the fact that this isn't meaty enough to pass as a decent political crime drama, and its way too slow to be an action flick or a thriller. Mark Wahlberg looks a bit lost, Russell Crowe is in second gear, and Zeta-Jones's character could have been played by any actress. By the end it becomes all too clear why this lasted in cinemas for one single week only. Pity those who ventured to pay money to see it.

Broken City has attracted more than its fair share of negative criticism. Perhaps people were expecting more of an 'action movie' out of it? Mark Wahlberg keeps his shirt on throughout the whole film and plays a disgraced cop who is forced to get by as a private eye. Then his old friend - Russell Crowe - the mayor of New York, hires him to look into his - apparently - cheating wife.Naturally, nothing is what it seems. However, we don't find much out in the first half of the movie, where Marky Mark spends his time aimlessly wandering from one meeting to another. I can see a lot of people tuning out because of this, but, if you can put up with Russell Crowe's bizarre tan and hairpiece, then you may enjoy the second half a lot more - where character after character drops bombshell after bombshell.It's basically a political thriller about how corrupt those are with power are and it has enough original twists and turns in it to make it stand out over the rest - just don't expect wall to wall shoot outs (and don't expect many juicy revelations in the first half!).

Is Broken City going to blow your mind away with something new and unexpected? Is Broken City the most original thriller you'll ever see? The answer to both of these questions is no, but don't worry because not all hope is lost. This film manages to be an interesting, half-entertaining thriller that pays thoughtful tribute to the period from the 1930's to 1950's when noir films were the most prevalent. This isn't the best thriller out there, but it certainly gets it's job done.Allen Hughes directs a film about how corruption and injustice is prevalent in politics. After ex-cop now turned private detective Billy Taggert is set up and framed by none other than the mayor himself, Billy goes out for some tasteful revenge.This film has a very good cast, better than one would expect for a January thriller. They won't blow you away, but they manage to be respectable. Mark Wahlberg brings some life to the role of Taggert. Russell Crowe does a good job as the mayor. Catherine Zeta-Jones does a good job and I could have used some more scenes with her.Overall, Broken City is a solid thriller that has some tricks up it's sleeves. This film definitely reminds me of noir films of old because of the way it was filmed. Most of the film is in darkness and shadows and I can appreciate that. The script is average at best, but good acting tries to make up for that. There's nothing new here, but at least it makes for an interesting film experience. I rate this film 8/10.