Broken City
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta Jones
Director: Allen Hughes
Rating: 3/5
Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe have both enjoyed long and varied careers and are two of the biggest names in Hollywood. Broken City sees the pair of them go head to head as they share the screen for the first time.
In a broken city rife with injustice, ex-cop Billy Taggart (Wahlberg) seeks redemption and revenge after being double-crossed and then framed by its most powerful figure, the mayor (Crowe).
Billy's relentless pursuit of justice, matched only by his streetwise toughness, makes him an unstoppable force and the mayor's worst nightmare.
Let’s get one thing straight right now, Broken City is a solid perfectly adequate political thriller that has some interesting characters and is entertaining from start to finish.
However this is a movie and a story that we have seen a hundred times before and there is no originality or surprise about it - but that doesn’t mean that you cannot kick back and enjoy the ride.
Mark Wahlberg gives a good performance in the role of Billy Taggart, a man who is looking for redemption. He is quite a complex character who is haunted somewhat by his past actions and the man that he use to be.
While Taggart is looking for a way to set things right that path is plagued by treachery… and it comes in the form of Russell Crowe.
Crowe gives a solid performance as Mayor Hostetler, and he is a man that you do not trust from the minute that you clap eyes on him.
The scene between the pair are some of the best in the movie as they are packed with tension - the audience knows that Taggart is being led a merry dance from the word go.
And that is what is the major problem with this movie as the audience knows exactly what is going on before the central character does.
While the story has enough to engage an audience there is nothing there to excite as the plot is something that we have seen many times before - and done better.
I like a good political thriller and Broken City is a compelling, it somewhat unoriginal, story that is acted and delivered well.
This movie just lacks a major twist or punch that would separate it from other films in this genre. Broken City is a perfectly adequate movie even if we have seen it all before.
Broken City is out now
Tagged in Mark Wahlberg Russell Crowe