Broken City: NR #38

You wanna know what came out this week? Nothing. While, yes, technically stuff did come out, it was just nothing interesting. We have a fairy-tale re-imagining that's probably mediocre, a Jason Statham action movie that's probably mediocre, and a raunchy ensemble cast comedy that has been panned by every known human being who's seen it. So what do you do with that? Go see the mediocre stuff that came out last week and that's exactly what I did. So is this week's movie as mediocre as I've alluded to? Let's find out in my review of...

PLOT
Billy Taggart is an ex-cop turned private investigator. The reason he's an ex-cop is because he killed a criminal in cold blood and while he won the court case, the mayor, Nicholas Hostetler, was given some evidence against Taggart. Because of this, Billy has to leave the force, but he's left on Hostetler's good side. Seven years later and one week from election day, the mayor assigns Billy a case. He wants Billy to follow his wife for he believes she's cheating on him. Once Billy gets the evidence, he soon discovers that there's more to this plot than just infidelity.




PROS
Russell Crowe is really good in his part, which surprised me. Not to say that he's a bad actor, in fact he's one of the greats, I was just surprised that he even tried for this seemingly average looking film.

The movie is a thriller, not an action-thriller, which I really enjoyed. While there is some action, it never gets to a point where it becomes an action movie. It begins as a thriller and sticks with the genre to the end.

While there is little action, what's there is shot well. It is close-up and shaky, but it never gets to the point where you can't tell what's going on.



CONS
The plot is very cliched. While there are some surprises, everything was mostly telegraphed or easy to spot before hand.

There are a few side stories that never really go anywhere, like Billy's relationship with his girlfriend. While at first it seems normal, there comes a point at the middle of the side plot where stuff starts to happen, and then it's just abandoned and never heard from again.



CONCLUSION
This is one of those movies that's hard to review. While not a bad movie, there's nothing great about it either.  I can't be glowing about it, but I can't pan it either. Overall, it's an average movie that good for a rental, but not for $8 in the theater.

RATING
RENTABLE


If you liked this review, why not check out last's week's reviews:
Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Fans of My Little Pony
I Saw the Devil & V/H/S 

Also, why not look at my other series, You May Not Know?
Azumanga Daioh (T.V)

Finally, here's my Top 10 Movies of 2012 (Click the title)