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Jan 16, 2013 · A political crime thriller with a lurid plot and a trashy script, but a star-studded cast and some entertaining moments. Roeper praises Crowe, Wahlberg, Zeta-Jones and Chandler, but criticizes the cliches and the predictability.
Feb 28, 2013 · Broken City – review. Allen Hughes's Manhattan thriller is a facsimile of a hundred better crime movies. T ravel south out of Chinatown, and you'll eventually wash up in Broken City, a pre-fab ...
- Xan Brooks
Jan 18, 2013 · Broken City's thinly sketched, formulaic script offers meager rewards for all but the least demanding noir aficionados. Read Critics Reviews
- (154)
- Allen Hughes
- R
- Mark Wahlberg
- Fine cast in a routine political thriller.
- Verdict
By Jim Vejvoda
Updated: Nov 24, 2018 6:50 pm
Posted: Jan 18, 2013 12:00 am
Broken City follows Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg), a former NYPD detective-turned-private eye who gets called in to do a job for Mayor Hostetler (Russell Crowe). It’s a “cheating wife” (Catherine Zeta-Jones) assignment that uncovers a lot more secrets and triggers some deadly double-crosses that will ultimately pit Billy against New York City’s most powerful man.
Marking his first film without his brother and directing partner Albert, director Allen Hughes delivers a rather old school political thriller in Broken City, a throwback to the kind of movies they made back in the … ‘90s, and ones that weren’t particularly distinguished. Films such as City Hall, Night Falls on Manhattan, People I Know and, more recently, Pride and Glory and We Own the Night all spring to mind. This is a film determined to remind us that politics and big cities are often hotbeds of corruption and moral failings, but it's a very loud and very old message.
Broken City is part detective procedural and part political conspiracy thriller, but it never quite works that well as either. Part of the problem is that the scandal at the heart of the movie – a land deal (not really a spoiler) – is just too low stakes by today’s moviegoing standards. Maybe it’s a sign of our acceptance of cynicism in modern politics, but politicians with shady ties to developers just doesn’t seem like enough of a big deal to unravel a political campaign anymore let alone make you shocked in a movie. Overall, there's very little about the story that's actually novel or suspenseful.
Broken City is a decent cop/political thriller, but it never quite rouses to life despite its stellar ensemble.
Parents need to know that Broken City is a mature political thriller with lethal violence, strong language, and lots of heavy drinking. Starring Russell Crowe and Mark Wahlberg, it's the kind of star-studded, testosterone-driven movie that teens might find appealing.
- Allen Hughes
- Sandie Angulo Chen
- Twentieth Century Fox
Jan 16, 2013 · A mayor’s re-election bid collides with an ex-cop’s quest for redemption in director Allen Hughes ‘ competent but juiceless New York melodrama, an unpersuasive marriage of head-slamming ...
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Jan 17, 2013 · The director Allen Hughes paints New York a darker shade of noir in “Broken City,” which traces the moral education of a cop who has shot a man dead and is forced to turn in his badge.
