Wahlberg and Crowe in Broken City Trailer

UK Release Date: 25th January 2013.

Stars: Allen Hughes (director), Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Plot: An ex-cop trailing the wife of New York City’s mayor finds himself immersed in a larger scandal.

Here is Russell Crowe taking on a very different look and perhaps overdoing the tan to play his character in Broken City whilst Mark Wahlberg just looks the same as he always does. I think these two actors have something in common with one another: they have both made some fantastic movies (The Departed, Gladiator) but both have also made movies that tread the line between bad and mediocre (Contraband, Robin Hood).

It feels like with the Broken City trailer we are being told lots of things but we are actually being told very little. The conspiracy or the ‘larger scandal’ are kept secret which is obviously a good marketing ploy to attract viewers but is the very boring story of ‘find out who my wife is sleeping with then i’ll kill her’ really an interesting in? I don’t think so.

I’m a fan of Russell Crowe and I do really like Mark Wahlberg (the same can’t be said for my feelings on the incredibly annoying Catherine Zeta-Jones and when she finally gets out of movies I will be very happy) so I hope that Broken City is a good film, but I can’t see it escaping the pool of mediocre films and it will surely slip into obscurity.

Action Packed Trailer for ‘End of Watch’

UK Release Date: 23rd November 2012.

Stars: David Ayer (director), Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Pena, Anna Kendrick, Cody Horn, David Harbour.

Plot: Two young officers are marked for death after confiscating a small cache of money and firearms from the members of a notorious cartel, during a routine traffic stop.

From the writer of such crime and action films such as Training Day, The Fast and the Furious, S.W.A.T comes his latest film which is written, directed and produced by this man: End of Watch. Based on his previous films the action should be handled pretty well and will probably be placed above character in the order of prominence.

However, judging by the trailer, End of Watch seems to place more importance on character development and relationships that any of Ayer’s previous work so this could be a step in the right direction. Gyllenhaal and Pena play the two cops who come under attack by the drug cartel and hopefully their chemistry will be believable.

If the film is entirely shot in the same way as the trailer, with the action scenes sliced together with scenes that look like they are from a cop documentary then I would be very interested to see it. But the trailer seems to split itself into two halves. In the beginning it looks like a more realistic and real life look at the work of police officers, then it turns into just a generic action cop film. I think that once you’ve seen so many cop films they all become the same.

Saying that though, I do think End of Watch looks pretty good.

The Raven Trailer

UK Release Date: 9th March 2012.

The Raven tells a fictitious account of Edgar Allen Poe’s last days. The poet is called in to assist the police when there are a series of murders that mirror the Poe’s stories.

Edgar Allen Poe is being played by John Cusack who I am a big fan of. Some of his recent films, Hot Tub Time Machine and 2012 for example, haven’t been that great but he has been good to watch despite the film itself being below average. Luke Evans plays secondary character, Detective Emmett Fields. Evans is a young and relatively new actor who has been very prolific in the last couple of years with his credits including Robin Hood, Clash of the Titans, Immortals and The Three Musketeers.

The trailer, I think, looks really good. There seem to be similarities between this film and Guy Ritchie’s reboot of Sherlock Holmes. The Raven looks very promising and could provide some very tense moments. Being Hollywood there is bound to be a twist in this crime thriller and will keep audiences guessing which of the characters is the killer right from the off.

Man On A Ledge Review

*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*

I had my reservations about seeing this film: the title is lazy, the cast doesn’t excite me at all and the trailers did absolutely nothing to sell this film to me. However, I really wanted to go to the cinema today and the only film on in the time slot available was Man On A Ledge, so I ended up watching it, and I have to say, despite it’s flaws, it surprised me.

Sam Worthington plays Nick Cassidy, a cop turned convict, who has escaped from prison and is now the man on a ledge, protesting his innocence and wanting everybody to know that he is innocent. But whilst the police are negotiating with what they think is a suicidal man Nick’s brother, Joey Cassidy (Jamie Bell) and Joey’s girlfriend Angie (Genesis Rodriguez) are using this cover to attempt a robbery from a building across the street in order to steal a diamond which Nick has supposedly stolen, cut down and sold on. Therefore, stealing this diamond would prove Nick’s innocence. Got it?

So I guess we have to talk about the acting, unfortunately. Sam Worthington is again given the lead role in a movie and again puts in an average to poor performance. Up until his character actually has something to do Worthington doesn’t really do enough to keep the audience interested in his character. I still like Jamie Bell from his days in Billy Elliot and I really do think he is a talented young actor but I think he needs to be wiser when choosing which films to appear in; his performance is below par and I was really hoping for something stronger from him. And as for Genesis Rodriguez, she is apparently only there to provide an eyeful of cleavage and to get a few shots of her body in the film to keep men interested. It’s as if the makers of this film doubted they could keep the attention of the audience themselves. The one bright spark in this film though, both in character story and portrayal, is Lydia Mercer played excellently by Elizabeth Banks and quite frankly I was interested in her character and her scenes a lot more than any other character of this film.

The story doesn’t really offer up anything we haven’t seen before. It plays out with a lot of back story, trying to create some mystery for the audience, but it fails. From the fight at the funeral I managed to guess every single twist the film had in store and I don’t want to be able to do that when I’m seeing a film for the first time! The film does pick up, however, once Nick is forced to run from the attempts to get him off the ledge and the sequence with him running around the edge of the hotel before jumping through a couple of windows was very enjoyable, as were the rest of the action scenes. Okay, so there’s a few things that are VERY unbelievable (when he jumps from the building, lands on the pad at the bottom and then manages to still get the diamond from Englander for example) but they can be overlooked in this film as it clearly isn’t trying to take itself seriously by this point.

And as for the ending… it seems very rushed and very ‘Hollywood’. One minute the film is still going on, he’s just got the diamond back, he’s proved his innocence, what’s going to happen now? Oh right, you’ve got the girl, you go to a pub and another twist is revealed that I managed to guess the second time of seeing that character. Well, thanks for that. And as for the proposal at the end… give me a break! The relationship between Joey and Angie made me cringe all the way through the film, the pair clearly had no chemistry and it just seemed forced.

But if you can overlook the bad acting and the routine story then you will enjoy this film as it does have a lot to enjoy. Just make sure you don’t go expecting to see something that’s going to make you think.

My rating: 5/10