Broken City: Grit, rain, Wahlberg, and a headache

So I watched Broken City the other night, this kinda sweaty crime-thriller that tries *really* hard to be clever but sometimes just feels, I dunno, more tired than a Tuesday fika at 15:45. Mark Wahlberg stars as Billy Taggart, a tough-but-troubled ex-cop. The sort of guy you probably wouldn’t want to meet in Gullmarsplan a Friday night. Russell Crowe storms around as the mayor with hair so perfect it could survive a Gothenburg storm. Oh, and you get Catherine Zeta-Jones thrown in for some “posh troubles”.

Allen Hughes, you know, one half of the Hughes brothers – the guys who made Menace II Society and From Hell – directs it. I actually had to double check on IMDb like, “is this the same guy?” Bit of a detour for him.

The movie’s drenched in rain and those gritty NYC shadows, but honestly, sometimes it’s just trying too much. Like when you’re at Hemköp and you’re carrying too many matkassar and your ägg inevitably goes, you know, smash. Wahlberg’s always intense, but the script doesn’t give much for him to chew. There’s a plot with political cover-ups, betrayal…and yet somehow it feels oddly safe? Middle-of-the-road, maybe.

Had a weird flashback midway through- reminded me of when I was sixteen and tried to solve the school’s break-in with my kompisar. We made a chart with string and everything, but we were mostly just pointing at each other. That’s Broken City – big energy, lots of pointing, but you’re not always sure who’s fooling who.

There’s some fun, dark jabs at power and corruption (hello, Sweden, rings a bell?), but the emotional punch is…tja, well, more like a weak slap. Might be fun if you’re just after a moody city thriller, but don’t expect to have your socks knocked off. Bring popcorn. Or maybe a raincoat.

watch the full movie on Mavshack Movies on YouTube

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