Miri G Story 7.5 / 10 Acting 1 / 10 Cinematography 2/10: 0/10 on filming the actors and 2/10 on spending some $ on effects/stunts.The movie tells an interesting story but the actors, all of them, are pretty dull; except Alona Tal she was the only one happy playing her character.Catherine Zeta Jones' script can be counted by the number of letters rather than the number of words.The movie could have been done better using actors who wanted to act.What makes the movie worse is its extended length: it is hard to watch people who do not want to be on the set being forced to do so for such an extended period.

Leofwine_draca I'm not sure why this was a bomb at the box office, because I thought it was pretty decent. It's a New York-set conspiracy thriller starring the underrated Mark Wahlberg as a private detective who soon becomes embroiled in a new case involving the city's Mayor (played with sleazy relish by Russell Crowe) and his cheating wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones.BROKEN CITY avoids the usual clichés of the genre for the most part, and it's almost entirely action-free; there are no fight scenes here and only a couple of shots are fired throughout. It's far from boring, though; the political shenanigans are completely engaging, and the scriptwriter does a fine job of showing how events from the past can come back to haunt us.I've really been enjoying Wahlberg's performances as of late (after this and CONTRABAND) and he does another good job here of playing a rather unpredictable and unlikeable character. Crowe is excellent, cast against type, and the underrated Jeffrey Wright bags a strong supporting role. BROKEN CITY is a story-focused thriller that remains tight and compelling throughout, which is why I give it a thumbs-up.

rbrogan91 Honestly, I have never seen a film starring Mark Wahlberg where I could say he was bad. As always, he performs excellently, as do all the rest of the cast. However, the storyline of the film isn't great and it can be hard to comprehend at times throughout. The reason for this is because it can be a bit jumpy going from one thing to another and not really making an awful lot of sense to the audience as well. There were no moments in the film that had me on the edge of my seat or shouting at the TV, which instantly tell me it was in no way thrilling or exciting. The only reason this film is watchable is because of the fine performances of the cast members and that is why it deserves a six, due to their hard work!

viewsonfilm.com Mark Wahlberg is gonna be a real busy guy this year. He's got four movies coming out and so far I've seen two of them. Although, I wasn't a fan of his April misfire entitled Pain & Gain (I just couldn't allow myself to be), I did enjoy his earlier release which was probably the first feature length film to come out in 2013. Yes I'm writing about Broken City and yes it entertained me. It's not a great movie but it is a pretty good one. I feel bad though, I mean I knew right away that it was gonna be in and out of the multiplexes faster than a speeding bullet. What you have here is a crime drama that came out in January (strike one), carries an extremely generic title (strike two), and recycles elements from so many other similar films in its respected genre (strike three). Broken City kinda reminded me of a movie that surfaced about 5 years ago (2008's Pride and Glory). Together these two pictures emulate a sort of greatest hits compilation of cinema's version of police corruption and crime. By now, I think we've pretty much seen it all before as moviegoers. But hey, there are a lot worse things you could be doing with two hours to kill than viewing a flick with one past Oscar nominee (Mark Wahlberg) and one past Oscar winner (Russell Crowe). The story goes like this: Wahlberg plays N.Y.P.D. detective Billy Taggert. He crosses the line by playing the dirty cop role (he commits a crime which I can't reveal, that would be a spoiler) and loses his job. Fast forward 7 years later and he is now moonlighting as a photographer/private eye who takes photos of people in I guess, small positions of power. He then catches them in the act of committing for example, adultery and gives this information to the related subjects who are paying for his services. On the verge of going bankrupt (business is slow), Taggert gets a sudden call from the mayor of New York City (Russell Crowe, with perfectly combed hair). Crowe's character (Nicholas Hostetler) proposition's Taggert, the opportunity to make some nice coin. Taggert has to find out if Hostetler's wife (Catherine Zeta- Jones) is cheating on him. Better yet, he has to find out who the actual dude is that's involved (this is a juicy plot point I tell you). So there it is, the gist of Broken City. Like every other three star movie it has a few flaws here and there. One flaw is that it feels overly familiar. Originality is not its strong suit. In its defense though, it's not easy to make this type of film with original ideas, better yet cut it from original cloth. Every darn police TV show or film beat Broken City to the punch. The second flaw is what this movie tries to be. While I found it entertaining and anything but boring, I felt like I was watching an episode of N.Y.P.D. Blue mixed with a dreary daytime soap. It's an interesting combo that could easily make a lot of other critics pick their jaw up off the floor. I didn't mind it though. What drew me in eventually, was the crackling scenes of dialogue between Wahlberg and Crowe's characters. They have some great chemistry between them and I hope someday they'll team up again (I won't tell you whether they become adversaries or not in this movie. That's up to you, the viewer, to find out). Along with Wahlberg and Crowe, (not to mention strong supporting work from Barry Pepper as Crowe's future re-election opponent) everyone else in the cast also does a pretty substantial job (sans Alona Tal who tries hard but looks out of place amongst the other Hollywood heavyweights).In retrospect, this isn't the type of trashy potboiler that's gonna set the world on fire. It does have solid performances, it moves at a brisk pace, and it offers a couple of nifty twists and turns. Granted, it won't have a chance come awards season but I'm sure the people who worked on it know that. On the bright side, they can feel confident that the film was edited nice and tight. This is one of the main aspects that kept me involved throughout its entire running time. Whether you view it or not (and I hope you do), Broken City gets more than enough things right. I'm certain that when the movie ends it will beg you to keep this one notion in mind: if it ain't "broken," don't fix it.