Broken City

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source: Broken City

Broken City is a mediocre thriller. Good acting and a reasonable script make for a couple of hours of escapism. Whatever you do - unless it's too late - don't read any synopses because they all give away twists in the plot, some of which happen over halfway through the film.

Having knowing little information about Broken City, I decided to give the film a chance. As well as without looking at reviews or ratings before hand. Broken City is a political crime drama dealing with the more politics side of Hollywood, as well as elections and the everyday point of view of characters in the press. Broken City is not a terrible movie, however more so forgettable. It is a typical January release-date film. It features a solid cast and polished directing by Allen Hughes, which is why I expected more. It is not all that great either. The script seems better suited for a television episode such as an extended episode of Law & Order. Though Broken City is lacking creatively, it does provide some entertaining scenes specifically the scenes involving Wahlberg and Crowe on screen at the same time. At 109 minutes, Broken City tends to drag slightly but fulfills the film with a predictable typical "good-guy" win.

It is always good to see unscrupulous politicians if damned wrong, even in fiction... (2016) Great police suspense film, simple but well developed script, charismatic characters, basic but interesting plot twist, very satisfactory, despite the absence of news, entertain and captivate... (reassessed by mistake 03/10/2020)

The story is so shallow, no doubt it's a first class commercial film. It's story has been made in many movies so nothing new to add in this one. Even the action scenes are rare. Really what a broken "Broken city" movie. Not convincing at all as an example the police commissioner is loose too but, there's no end for his role. Natalie the girlfriend role has no meaning or an effect, vanished without a logical cause so why at the beginning this character has been added to the script, really has no meaning. Saw this movie as a paragraph without a thesis sentence, can't find a convincing end for the movie. Really its a destructive movie for a man like Russell Crow after his tremendous role in "Les Mesrables" , what a flop for this actor !

The reviews wrongly criticised what is actually a great film. Then again if you put Russell Crowe, the increasingly watchable Walberg and the always riveting Jeffrey Wright, it's highly likely that it will be at least good Add arguably Catherine Zeta Jones's best performance since Traffic and it's well worth the watch

This film is enjoyable if you don't expect too much. Wahlberg is appealing in almost every movie he's been in, and this one is no exception. Crowe and Zeta-Jones are fine in their roles too. Sure the script is a little slow in parts and there are some holes in the plot. But you can't worry too much about plot holes in this kind of movie anyway. The fun is finding out "whodunit" and seeing the bad guys get their due. The ending is a nice touch, by the way. If you like old-fashioned crime dramas, Broken City is good escapism. I've seen way too many movies in the past year or so that were a lot worse than this one.

An entertaining, if overly complicated, thriller about murder and corruption involving City Hall. It aims for the same kind of labyrinth, noirish feel that distinguished "Chinatown" but falls far short. Mark Wahlberg is the ex-cop who is being set up, Russell Crowe, (very good), is the corrupt mayor and Catherine Zeta-Jones is the mayor's wife and others in a good supporting cast include Kyle Chandler, Jeffrey Wright, Barry Pepper and Griffin Dunne. The problem is there's just too much plot, most of it shrouded in mystery, with what I percieved to be a gay subplot getting lost in the mix. On the plus side, director Allen Hughes never pauses for breath and it looks great, (Ben Seresin was the DP), but it wasn't much of a success and has largely been forgotten.