Wednesday 2 April 2014

Film Review: Broken City

Genre:  Crime  Drama  Thriller 

Cert: 15 Cert

Director : Allen Hughes

Writer: Brian Tucker

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jeffrey Wright, Barry Pepper, Alona Tal, Natalie Martinez.

Running time: 109 min

Parents advised to read before viewing film as some scene may contain scenes unsuitable for younger viewers.

Sex & Nudity: A man and a woman are watching a movie, and the woman is one of the actors: in a movie she kisses a man passionately, they remove their clothing (we see her bare breasts, abdomen and buttocks), and the man leans her over a counter and thrusts from behind; the woman's boyfriend, who's watching the movie with her, becomes visibly upset.
We see a topless woman through a window and her bare breasts are visible; a man stands outside the window and takes photographs of a man seated in a chair and the woman, wearing panties that reveal her bare buttocks, is leaning over him and kissing him and she appears to move toward his crotch, but it is not clear (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details).
A man and a woman kiss passionately.
Women wear a low-cut tops and dresses that reveal cleavage, bare shoulders and backs in several scenes.
We see a man's bare abdomen while a woman is tending to a bloody wound.
Two men are shown in a locker room and one is seen bare-chested while dressing.
A man sits in a bathtub and we see his bare shoulders, abdomen, arms and back.
A husband caresses his wife's shoulders and squeezes her neck (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details).
A man asks his girlfriend if she had sex with another man.
A man talks about suspecting his wife of infidelity and uses crude terms to describe the details that he wants a man to uncover for him.
A woman refers to the excitement she gets from uncovering a clue as "orgasmic."

Violence & Gore:A man points a smoking gun toward someone in the distance and we see a dead man on the ground with a bloody bullet hole in his head.
A man is shown shooting a man three times (once after he falls to the ground); it is dark and we see the man fall but blood is not evident.
A man in a car is shot at, speeds away and another car chases; the cars ram into each other, one car is T-boned by another car and one car slams into a construction barrier (we see the driver with bloody cuts on his face as he pulls a shard of glass out of his forehead).
A man shoots another man (it is implied that he is shot in the back or the leg but we do not see a wound); the two men then fight with punches, one man presses his fingers in the other man's eyes, and one is struck and falls to the floor where the other man kicks him in the head a couple of times (he is shown lying unconscious).
A man breaks into a house, grabs a man and slams him against a wall, shoves him to the floor and holds him at gunpoint; he then hits him in the head a few times after getting him up off the floor.
A man standing outside a window and taking photographs is attacked by another man with a baseball bat; the man is struck a couple of times and he then fights back and knocks the attacker unconscious, another man comes out to inquire about what is happening and he is struck by the man with the camera.
A man holds an inebriated man under water in a bathtub while another man questions him (the man struggles and is let up before drowning).
A man grabs another man by the throat, slams him against a wall and then throws him to the ground (we do not see injuries).
A man hits his adult son in the head twice, and they yell at each other and shove each other until they are separated by other men.
A man shoves another man while walking on the street and punches him (he's presumably a stranger).
A man throws a partially filled bottle of liquor at a passing car.
A tarp is pulled off a shooting victim and we see a bloody patch on his chest and blood splatter on his face.
We see a man with a bloody ear and a bloody wound on his abdomen after a fight as a woman tends to his injuries.
We see a child with an IV in a hospital bed.
A husband caresses his wife's shoulders and squeezes her neck while speaking to her in a threatening manner (she seems afraid).
People talk about a 16-year-old girl that had been raped and murdered in a several scenes; the girl's sister refers to her having been beaten to death.
We hear a report of a shooting.
A man talks about being bullied when he was younger.
A man and a woman argue and he accuses her of having sex with another man.
A man yells at people over the telephone trying to get them to pay him for work he has done for them.
A woman yells at people over the telephone, makes threats (including revealing an extramarital affair to a man's wife) and calls them names.
A man talks about a "kill shot."
A man refers to his son not being capable in business using crude terms.
Two men argue during a political debate.
Two men play racquetball; one falls on the floor, and then the other (neither is injured).
A man squeezes a glass and it breaks in his hand. 

Profanity: 64 F-words, 8 sexual references, 7 scatological terms, 13 anatomical terms (1 in Spanish and not translated), 15 mild obscenities, 3 derogatory term for homosexuals, 4 religious profanities and 2 religious exclamations.
Name-calling (homicidal rapist, cross-dresser, liar, crook, smug and cut rate.) 


Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking:A man drinks a glass of alcohol and offers another man a drink (he turns it down.)
A man talks about not drinking for seven years.
A man drinks a beer from a bottle.
A woman drinks a glass of wine.
A woman says "I drink wine."
A man and a woman hold glasses of wine (we do not see them drink.)
People drink wine at a dinner.
People drink alcohol at a party.
A man is shown drinking several drinks quickly at a party.
People drink alcohol in a bar.
A man drinks in a bar.
A man drinks several drinks in a bar and then leaves to buy several bottles of alcohol that we see him drinking while walking the streets in a stupor.
People drink alcohol at a celebration.
A woman smokes a cigarette.

Frightening/Intense Scenes: There's some pretty intense violence (including images of gunshot victims and brutal fighting.)
 


Story: In New York City, detective Billy Taggart goes to court for the murder of the rapist Mikey Tavarez, but the Mayor Nicholas Hostetler and the Chief of Police Carl Fairbanks vanish with important evidence and Billy is declared not guilty by the judge; however, he leaves the police department. Seven years later, Billy is a private detective and lives with his girlfriend Natalie Barrow, who is an aspiring actress and the sister of Mikey's victim. His secretary Katy Bradshaw (Alona Tal) is trying to collect part of the debts to save their business. In the week of the elections, Hostetler summons Billy and offers $50,000 to investigate his wife, Cathleen Hostetler, whom he believes is having a love affair. Billy discovers that Cathleen is meeting Paul Andrews, who is the coordinator of the campaign of Jack Valliant, the opponent of Hostetler and favorite in the election. When Paul is found dead on the street, Billy finds that he had been double-crossed by Hostetler and he decides to investigate the truth behind Paul's murder.

Likes : Some people aren't fan's of Mark Wahlberg film's but i find his film brilliantly entertaining & sometime dark & gritty, which make this film more interesting to watch.
Straight off the bat you understand wahlberg character Billy Taggart  a New York city cop who got off on a technicality following his execution of a supposed rapist/murder. Discharged from the force by his Captain (Jeffrey Wright), Taggart is viewed highly by Mayor Hostetler (Russell Crowe) for taking out the trash with a common thug. Seven years later, Hostetler, amidst a re- election battle against golden boy city councilman Jack Valliant (Barry Pepper), hires Taggart to find out who is sleeping with his gorgeous wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones). As Taggart follows, he uncovers a much larger conspiracy, this is where this film take on a must darker gritter tone as your in to black mail, murder, corruption & power.
Russel crowe plays this with brilliance very convince role to playing a mayor of the city with a darker corrupt side but hides it very well. Mark Wahlberg does an excellent job doing a role he's well suited for in this film ,Catherine Zeta-Jones is as beautiful and commanding as ever in a role that is too short for the movie. But it is Russell Crowe who devours his scenes with the political intensity I would suppose is necessary for any real Mayor of New York. Even as the script built around Billy lags, Crowe tears apart his role. He shows why he is truly one of the best actors in the business.
 The supporting cast of this film are as much a draw as the leads. Jeffrey Wright, the usual supporting character with more power than he lets on, plays the secretive Police Commissioner. His character is introduced as a stock role but ends up being much more. Kyle Chandler has a small role that deserved to be expanded. Barry Pepper, who wasn't even featured in the trailer, is the only actor in the film with the same bravado as Crowe. His scenes, particularly one with Wright and Wahlberg, are indicative of why he should be the one on the poster.
This is what you really get from a mark wehlberg film not quiet the action hard man but close to it, this film wasn't bad for a thriller, a little underrated as it not a bad film to watch, with its twists & turn's its sometime hard to follow what going but overall this is a worth watching film.


Dislikes : There is a few plot flaws but not enough to bring the film down as a whole.

Overall : powerful, gritty, dark thriller that take you into the world of murder & corruption  

Rating: 4.1 out of 5 for entertainment / 7 out of 10 for story-line/ gritty concept




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