Broken City - A slow burner, but worth it

'Broken City' has attracted more than its fair share of negative criticism. Perhaps people were expecting more of an `action movie' out of it? Mark Wahlberg keeps his shirt on throughout the whole film and plays a disgraced cop who is forced to get by as a private eye. Then his old friend - Russell Crowe - the mayor of New York, hires him to look into his - apparently - cheating wife.

Naturally, nothing is what it seems. However, we don't find much out in the first half of the movie, where Marky Mark spends his time aimlessly wandering from one meeting to another. I can see a lot of people tuning out because of this, but, if you can put up with Russell Crowe's bizarre tan and hairpiece, then you may enjoy the second half a lot more - where character after character drops bombshell after bombshell.

There aren't that many secondary characters worth mentioning.  Mark Wahlberg does have a wife, but all the best male/woman scenes happen with his secretary, of whom he just about manages to keep their relationship 'professional.'

It's basically a political thriller about how corrupt those are with power are and it has enough original twists and turns in it to make it stand out over the rest - just don't expect wall to wall shoot outs (and don't expect many juicy revelations in the first half!).

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that