By now I think we've all heard the constant moans and groans coming from the US about how bad the month of January is for movies, and whilst they may complain about a month that was fantastic for us in the UK (Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty etc.), we have now reached the time of year when the things they saw in January come to our shores, hence Broken City.

Now I would be lying if I said there weren't things that I enjoyed in Broken City, because for the first hour, believe it or not I was actually enjoying myself. It had a solid plot-line that was simple, but effective, however upon hitting the sixty minute mark the plot-line goes in a completely different direction, which resulted in the film being nowhere near as compelling as it was beforehand.

The film is set in a city full of injustice (New York), and follows ex-cop Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg) seeking redemption and revenge after being doubled-crossed and framed by the city's most powerful figure: Mayor Nicholas Hostetler (Russell Crowe).

Now as you can tell from the synopsis Broken City boasts a rather impressive cast, heck even Catherine Zeta-Jones is thrown into the mix and for the fourth time in under twelve months (second time this year, if you're counting) she is once again playing a rich man's wife? What can you say; she's at that age I guess, but on the other hand she never fails to deliver an exquisite performance. Anyway in terms of acting the cast all do a solid job, but it's just rather unfortunate that the characters they are playing are difficult to connect with from an audience perspective, because I would find it hard to imagine that anyone would be completely invested by what was going in this movie. In all fairness the subject matter is relatively dull, and at times it works, but in other instances it goes in the opposite direction. However I will say this, the dialogue and delivery courtesy of the stars was very strong indeed, and although I would regard this as an average movie they all seem incredibly committed to the project, especially executive producer and leading actor Mark Wahlberg, who never disappoints when playing roles like he does here.

There are a few things that hold Broken City back from being a decent crime-thriller, but most noticeably there seems to be a lot going on during its 109 minute running time. In all honesty I think it would have made for a better TV show. But then again another problem the film has is that it's incredibly tedious and boring. In all honesty I think the cast do a good job with what is a relatively dull script. It's the type of film that's enjoyable in places, but upon leaving the movie theatre, you'll probably forget about it in the next couple of hours. By no means is it a bad movie, because as I said I liked the first hour, but from there onwards I kind of lost interest.

5/10

JBool

Release Date: 1st March 2013 (UK)