Broken City Review

Ever since I started writing these reviews, I've seen a lot of movies that, previously, I wouldn't have touched with a ten-foot-pole. Broken City is one of those films.

The story revolves around an ex-cop turned private eye (Mark Wahlberg). He is hired by the mayor (Russell Crowe) to follow his wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and confirm that she is having an affair. The plot sounds like a typical 30's noir film, where a PI is paid to investigate one thing and uncovers a whole other plot. Sadly, that's exactly how this one reads as well.

My biggest issue with this film is that it wasn't an homage to noir films. If you just read the script, or just listened to the dialogue, you would find all of the typical tropes of noir stories. You have the typical one liners, the generic bad guy, the red herring. It's all there. The problem is that this film thought it was much more than that. It tried to be a gritty, modern day noir film, and horribly failed. If you want to be modern day noir, you can't have all of the cheesy one liners and dry dialogue. It just doesn't work that way.

The biggest problem with this film was the direction, because that is really why it failed for me. The director shouldn't have tried to make this a real crime thriller, especially with the script he was working with. If he had adapt the script the way it read, it should have been more like The Maltese Falcon and less like Pride and Glory. He was trying to turn a generic noir script into more than it was, and when you overreach, you are doomed to fail. Shame on him.

The acting in the film was pretty mediocre. They did the best with what they were given, and whatever the director told them to do, but it was nothing special. It's a shame really, since they had so much acting talent there.

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Just like Spring Breakers, this movie had the potential to be a much better movie, but was failed by it's director. Not only should you not pay to see this movie, just don't see it at all. There is no redeeming qualities about this film.

Writing: 4/10

Directing: 1/10

Acting: 4/10

Pacing: 4/10

Rewatchability: 3/10

Score: 3.2/10