Prime
Broken City
Set in the Big Apple, this crime drama stars an all-star ensemble including the likes of Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe and Catherine Zeta Jones. The movie also marks the directing solo debut of Allen Hughes who happens to be one half of the Hughes brothers. The duo is the brain child behind movies like “Book of Eli” and “From Hell”. However the brothers are best known as the directors who were assaulted by Tupac Shakur during a music video shoot. An incidence that landed the rap star some jail time
Plot
The film follows the exploits of the character Billy Taggart played by Wahlberg. Taggart is a police officer who is brought up on charges of murder in light of his involvement in the shooting of a one Mickey Tavarez. An individual who happened to rape and murder the sister to his current girlfriend.
Billy manages to escape going to prison on a technicality but is forced to hand in his badge when an eyewitness that could pin him to the murder comes to ground. He manages to make a deal with the police commissioner and the mayor of his city [played by Russell Crowe] to retire from the force without incidence.
Seven years go by without incidence and our main character finds himself a private investigator on the verge of bankruptcy. Just when all seems to be looking down, the heavens open up and the Mayor of the city calls on him with a job worth 50,000 dollars. He is assigned the task of tailing the politician’s wife until he figures out whom she is sleeping with. At this point I could not say anymore without giving the story away. But all I can say is that things get really interesting from that point on.
Wahlberg has surely come a long way from his rapping days and is even credited as a producer on this particular project. Crowe is as cool as ever and although this is far from his best performance, he still manages to put in a good days work.
The script may have been a little lacking in some regard but in terms of entertainment value the movie does manage to deliver all the way. There wasn’t a single moment where I felt bored. But at the end of it all you can’t help but feel that the production just needed a little more spice to make it a great movie considering all the big shots at it had at its disposal.
