By Jim Vejvoda
Broken City follows Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg), a former NYPD detective-turned-private eye who gets called in to do a job for Mayor Hostetler (Russell Crowe). It’s a “cheating wife” (Catherine Zeta-Jones) assignment that uncovers a lot more secrets and triggers some deadly double-crosses that will ultimately pit Billy against New York City’s most powerful man.
Marking his first film without his brother and directing partner Albert, director Allen Hughes delivers a rather old school political thriller in Broken City, a throwback to the kind of movies they made back in the … ‘90s, and ones that weren’t particularly distinguished. Films such as City Hall, Night Falls on Manhattan, People I Know and, more recently, Pride and Glory and We Own the Night all spring to mind. This is a film determined to remind us that politics and big cities are often hotbeds of corruption and moral failings, but it’s a very loud and very old message.