5.8 | / 10 |
Users | 3.8 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.4 |
An ex-cop finds himself in over his head when he agrees to help out the mayor of New York City in this tense political thriller from director Allen Hughes. Having had to sacrifice a promising career when he was involved in a controversial shooting, tough street cop Billy Taggart is spared a prison stretch by the intervention of the city's popular Mayor Nicholas Hostetler. Starting afresh as a private investigator, Billy is soon hired by Hostetler to find out if his wife is being unfaithful. But when her suspected lover is later found dead, Billy realises too late that the mayor's motives run deeper than expected, and that if he's to stay alive, he needs to take the fight to his opponents, risking all to reveal the truth.
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jeffrey Wright, Barry PepperThriller | 100% |
Crime | 90% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Italian: DTS 5.1
English SDH, Italian, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Midway through Broken City, one character incredulously remarks, "Private eyes still exist?" A holdout from the times before no-fault divorce laws—when evidence of infidelity was demanded in court—the gumshoe-for-hire profession does seem old-fashioned and mostly unnecessary now. You could describe Broken City the same way: old-fashioned and mostly unnecessary. Penned by first-time screenwriter Brian Tucker and directed solo by Allen Hughes—one half of the Hughes Brothers, best known for Menace II Society and, most recently, The Book of Eli—the film struggles falteringly to be a neo-noir in the Chinatown mold, all political corruption and moral ambiguity, shady land dealings and romance gone sour. The problem here is that Tucker and Hughes have merely parroted the style instead of reinvigorating it and making it their own. Look no further than Nicholas Winding Refn's Drive to see that film noir has evolved in exciting new ways; conversely, Broken City feels like an ill-considered step backwards, from its tries-too-hard dialogue to its pointlessly convoluted plot, which recycles a few too many genre cliches.
Broken City was shot digitally with Arri Alexa HD cameras, but you'd hardly know it; most of the movie has a gritty, textured, almost film-like quality that the Blu-ray's 1080p/AVC encode captures well. There are a few darker scenes where the source noise spikes maybe a bit too intensely— taking on a more mottled look, with crushed shadows and decreased detail—but overall, the image has a satisfying aesthetic. Closeups reveal easily visible fine textures in the actors' faces and clothing—see Mark Wahlberg's stubble or Catherine Zeta-Jones' gauzy shawl—and while there are some noticeably soft wide shots, these are few and far between. Color density is strong, and the grading favors yellows and blues, with generally warm skin tones paired against cooler accents. Although contrast is usually excellent, there are the aforementioned darker sequences where black levels can seem just a little too intense. Then again, this is arguably all part of the dreary neo-noir style Hughes and cinematographer Ben Seresin are going for. I spotted no evidence of heavy digital noise reduction or edge enhancement, and there are no obvious compression or encode issues. Looks good to me.
20th Century Fox has given Broken City the now-standard DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless surround treatment, which is more than capable of handling the film's fairly low-impact sound design. There are a few action-heavy scenes that are more energetic—a car crash, a fight or two or three—but the track is usually reserved and dialogue-driven. Most of the audio emerges from the front channels, but the rear speakers are called into play when needed, rendering some accurate-sounding environmental ambience—the jeers of a crowd outside the courthouse, clattering flatware in a restaurant, the tennis shoe squeaks and echoey thwacks inside a racquetball court—along with directional effects like cop car sirens. There's also a rather trippy audio sequence—with hazy, disembodied, overlapping voices—when Taggart begins drinking and goes on a night-long bender, getting into street fights and stumbling from bar to bar. Trent Reznor pal and David Fincher go-to guy Atticus Ross provides a thrumming electronic soundtrack to fill in the mix, but although it sounds good, it rarely gets the opportunity to really open up and roar. Dialogue, however, is always clear and easy to understand. The disc also includes Spanish and Italian dubs, along with English SDH, Spanish, and Italian subtitle tracks.
Between Drive and The Place Beyond the Pines and half a dozen indie others, neo-noir is definitely seeing a resurgence. Unfortunately, Broken City will probably be one of the least remembered of the recent bunch. It wants to be Chinatown but it's closer to The Two Jakes, if you follow me—dull, unoriginal, and less than the sum of its many cinematic influences. Mark Wahlberg's smooth tough-guy performance stands out, but only because the rest of the movie is so unmemorable, a tangled knot of cliche storylines we've seen done numerous times before in much better films. It's passably watchable if you're, I dunno, sick in bed or bored on a rainy Saturday afternoon, but if you're a fan of crime thrillers, Broken City is not something you should feel obligated to rush out and see. If you're still curious, at least know that 20th Century Fox's Blu-ray release is all-around solid, with strong audio and video quality and a few decent extras.
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