Review of Broken City (2013) by Spiritoflove76 . — 20 Jan 2014

Nothing new here. Pretty much your standard corruption-and-crime-at-the-top crime-thriller. Plot is initially mildly interesting but quickly degenerates into a predictable storyline. Not just predictable, but contrived and full of holes.

Characters are pretty stereotypical: crooked politician, our hero is a down-on-his-luck ex-cop turned private investigator, standard minor characters (police chief, wife who doesn't understand our hero, dutiful assistant). Nothing new under the sun.

Mark Wahlberg could be excused for doing the best he can with the dud script. However, he a producer of the movie, so bears some of the responsibility for the film. Russell Crowe is quite irritating as the politician, or maybe he managed to capture politicians perfectly! Catherine Zeta-Jones has surprisingly little screen time. Barry Pepper is badly cast as the do-good politician - he really doesn't look the part.