Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Verity Robins Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

antoniotierno A very sensitive, intelligent and ambitious variation on the traditional going-straight story. Mark Wahlberg is just out of prison and determined to keep off troubles but inevitably runs into them when getting involved in the sabotage and in the unforeseen murder. In terms of conventional suspense, the film is too much muted and sombre in order for it to deliver the goods convincingly but as a character study and an exploration of different notions of family, friendship, duty and loyalty, the careful attention to detail pays off. A great cast (Phoenix and Theron perfect as wheel) does help, as does the strongly surprising use of good music.

gradyharp This somewhat ponderous but very moody film dates back to the year 2000 and it is fascinating to see how the actors, so glamorous at the time of the filming, have changed. Age happens, and in the case of this film it has aged well.The title refers to the rail yards of Queens where contractors repair and rebuild the New York's subway cars. These contracts are lucrative, so graft and corruption rule. When Leo Handler (Mark Wahlberg) gets out of prison having taken the fall for his friends and family, he finds his aunt Kitty (Faye Dunaway) married to Frank Olchin (James Caan), one of the big contractors; he's battling with a minority-owned firm for contracts. Willie Gutierrez (Joaquin Phoenix), Leo's best friend, is Frank's bag man and heads a crew of midnight saboteurs who ruin the work of the Puerto Rican-owned firm. Leo needs a job, so Willie pays him to be his back-up. Then things go badly wrong one night, a cop IDs Leo, and everyone now wants him out of the picture. Besides his ailing mom (Ellen Burstyn) and his cousin Erica Charlize Theron) , to whom can Leo turn? He is drawn into a world of sabotage, high-stakes payoffs and even murder. Then, he discovers a secret that makes him the target of the city's most ruthless family - his own. How Leo responds is a lesson in courage.Strong cast, good screenplay by Director James Gray ('We Own the Night', 'Little Odessa', etc) and Matt Reeves, atmospheric creative cinematography by Harris Savides, and a very beautiful musical score by Howard Shore make this little drama intense and moving. Grady Harp

Desertman84 The Yards is a crime film featuring Mark Wahlberg, James Caan, Joaquin Phoenix, and Charlize Theron. In this drama, a young man joins the family business without knowing that he's entering a world of danger and deceit. It was written and directed by James Gray.Hot-headed Leo Handler has had some scrapes with the law and served time for a crime he didn't commit. Hoping to get his life back on track, he takes a job in the New York subway yards, secured by his Uncle Frank, who has a high-ranking position in the New York Transit Authority. The longer Leo works in the yards, the more he realizes that his uncle controls a corrupt underworld where graft, violent reprisals, and even death are just part of the job. Will Leo turn against his family in the name of justice, or will he keep quiet and ignore the danger and lawlessness that surround him?A very good film, and though obviously flawed, it does generate one form of elation: the feeling of seeing a young director stick to the guns of his tricky, ambitious material, and find the right people to tell his story. How it shifts toward crime drama through character rather than pure plot is hard to disclose without divesting twists. Inspired by real-life scandal, James Gray lets personal insight color Shakespearean shenanigans of privilege, panic and power. Overall, it is a sensitive, intelligent and ambitious variation on the traditional going-straight story; its ambiguity that makes the film interesting and a richly textured crime thriller with an authentic feel.

witz-2 It is a tale that has been told before. Nothing really new here. The cast was very good. The production design was OK. Lighting and sound should have been better. I wonder about the choices the director made.It is one thing to try to make a Noir film, but I was totally turned off by the hushed tones, and whispers. Conversations seemed to take place in echo chamber. As it continued to be unhearable, it became unwatchable.If you have a quiet media room, then you might get more out of this than I did.There are plenty of other crime dramas out there.