Lawbolisted Powerful

Console best movie i've ever seen.

Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

TdSmth5 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.

Guy BROKEN CITY is the sort of film which thinks that if you throw in a racial epithet or two and have the characters all act like sleazeballs then that makes you mature. The plot sees Marky Mark's ex-cop cum PI take on a case for the shady Mayor of NYC, who suspects his ice- queen wife of infidelity. Inevitably this is a cover for dodgy goings on involving the upcoming elections (the other candidate is a gay liberal, so it isn't hard to guess who's the villain) and a real-estate deal (involving a mogul with one Jewish and one Irish name, to make sure nobody gets offended). The plot hinges on the firm involved not only failing to shred vital documents but actually leaving a whole box of them in the trash, ready for our hero to grab. There's a romantic subplot which sees the hero dump his gal - the gorgeously husky- voiced Natalie Martinez - and get drunk for no reason except that the plot demands it. In fairness to it, it's a rare American thriller which relies on politics and has no real action scenes - a few desultory gunshots aside - to speak of, so it's just a pity that it's still so politically juvenile.

bowmanblue 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!).

rbrogan91 Honestly, I have never seen a film starring Mark Wahlberg where I could say he was bad. As always, he performs excellently, as do all the rest of the cast. However, the storyline of the film isn't great and it can be hard to comprehend at times throughout. The reason for this is because it can be a bit jumpy going from one thing to another and not really making an awful lot of sense to the audience as well. There were no moments in the film that had me on the edge of my seat or shouting at the TV, which instantly tell me it was in no way thrilling or exciting. The only reason this film is watchable is because of the fine performances of the cast members and that is why it deserves a six, due to their hard work!