Movie Nation

It’s a filthy place, this “Broken City.” Even the people called “good guys” have their dark side, their dirty secrets, their tragic flaws.

And the “bad guys?” They’re all over the New York papers, all over New York cable news – a mayor who plays hardball, a guy running against him who’s not above crawling in the mud, a police commissioner too quick to make ethical compromises.

“Broken City” begins with a cop, ably played by Mark Wahlberg, on trial for a shooting that may not be as cut-and-dried as he maintains. The mayor (Russell Crowe) slaps him on the back, says “I like having my picture taken with heroes.” But he and the police chief (Jeffrey Wright) end Billy Taggart’s career, no matter what the judge says.

Cut to seven years later, Billy’s a private detective – skulking in alleys, photographing cheating spouses. He’s got a hot actress wife (Natalie Martinez), and his work has made him the jealous type. He’s got a lot of bills and a bad temper.

At least he’s on the wagon.

That’s the moment his old pal, the mayor, calls. Find out who’s sleeping with my wife, His Honor says. Do it before Election Day, next week. The can-do mayor is in a two-fisted race with a city councilman (Barry Pepper). The last thing he needs is for word that his wife ( Catherine Zeta-Jones) is cuckolding him to get out.
But once Billy has done his job and gotten the incriminating photos things turn even dicier. The adulterer turns up dead and Billy wonders if he’s been set up. His life unravels even as he and his perky assistant (Alona Tal) unravel the layers of deceit surrounding this case.

Director Allen Hughes (“The Book of Eli”) hides the secrets well and stages a good fight and chase. But what’s most entertaining about Brian Tucker’s script is the lived-in feel it has. The ex-cop is all rough-edges, intolerant at times, ill-tempered. And funny. His assistant calls something “Wondrous.”

“Wondrous?! Did they teach you that at DeVry?”

Politicians treat slander with the cavalier disregard of those used to an “any means necessary” style of campaigning.

“It won’t stick. But it’ll smudge.”

Working class cops and their working class mayor have homophobic streaks. Wright plays his police chief turned police commissioner with simmering resentment that feels righteous, but suspect. Crowe gives his guy a working class background that makes him menacing, even when he’s glad-handing supporters.

Jones has a decent part to play as well, a woman challenging the private eye on what he thinks he knows.

“Do you believe in love?”

“I believe in loving the one you’re with.”

“What are you, stupid or Catholic?”

There’s a lot of background to pack into every character, and Tucker sets up each character as a paragon of right, only to pull a rug from under them.

“Broken City” doesn’t have a compelling narrative to pull it along. Wahlberg, playing well within his comfort zone, dials back the fearsome, aiming for funny some of the time. But it’s a hallmark of this slightly-better-than-average thriller that it is missing some of the requisite thrills. And that Wahlberg blows his best one-liner.

This mayor is “dangerous,” he’s warned. Naah, Billy replies.“He only knows people that kill people.” Emphasize the “KNOWS” and the line sings.

MPAA Rating: R for pervasive language, some sexual content and violence

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jeffrey Wright, Barry Pepper, Natalie Martinez

Credits: Directed by Allen Hughes, written by Brian Tucker. A 20^th Century Fox release.

Running time: 1:49

What I was saying about this New York Times story the other day re: China’s involvement in/censorship of Hollywood product continues to bear fruit.

Even James Bond, who didn’t do much that would offend Chinese sensibilities in “Skyfall,” has fallen victim, according to THR. They messed around with dialogue/subtitles and subtexts about crime and corruption in China in the film when it was shown there.

Granted, the REST of the world saw it the way it was intended. But what are the chances that Sony-owned Sony Pictures won’t flinch the next time an editorial decision like this comes up, knowing how the Chinese frown on criticism of Communist China?

Sorry if I sound like an old school Red Baiter here, but this isn’t any different from Japan’s refusal to acknowledge guilt for World War II, the Rape of Nanjing, and other pieces of actual history, things edited or suppressed when a movie like “The Last Emperor” or “Flowers of War” come out.

It’s movie Thursday on the Open Mike radio show, so I’ll be talking Oscars and Arnold, Marky Mark and Mama with Mike Bianchi and Brian Fritz at about 745.

You can listen online, or tune to 740 The Game on your drive in.

Director worship is very much in evidence with reviews of this weekend’s movie releases.

Critics don’t care for the Hughes brothers — Allen “Book of Eli” Hughes in particular. So “Broken City” is cut no slack.

They love South Korean director Kim Jee-Woon — he did this great thriller, “I saw the Devil.” So they wet themselves over “The Last Stand,” an inferior Arnold S. nostalgia piece.

And they adore Guillermo del Toro, so “Mama” made by one of his minions, gets a pass.

Not everybody appreciated the ambition of “Broken City,” which aimed the highest of the weekend’s movies, and had a couple of pretty good actors in it. Poor reviews for that one.

I can only shake my head at the love the Schwarzenegger on a shingle picture “The Last Stand” is getting. It’s like a lame “Rio Bravo,” old fashioned, with cornball sidekicks, eye candy women, bad catch phrases and gun worship. Weak villain, half-decent action, but come on — it’s “Raw Deal Revisited.”

It has a nice washed out look and one new idea for a car chase.

t’s coming back, going into a lot more theaters. And that means a lot of confused filmgoers, or a lot more than there were when “Beasts of the Southern Wild” was a limited release/film festival sort of movie, sought out by people looking for a challenge, ready to embrace its poetic nature.

But hand it to the studio. They’ve got  best script/best director and best picture nominations, and they’re going to drag this thing into big profits because of it. Good on’em. It’s earned over $11 million, and they could easily double that by Oscar night.

Seeing it? Here’s my review, from last year.

And while we’re at it, here’s my interview with the filmmaker, explaining the magic he made out there in the bayou, and how he did it.

But HERE is the link you really need for this movie, this weekend. There, or Fandango. You haven’t seen it. You know you need to.

“Mama” breaks a lot of horror movie rules, right off the proverbial bat.

It gives us a long back-story opening, and brings up much more back story as the tale progresses.

It over-explains. It reveals its supernatural menace, not just in glimpses, but full on, and early on. There’s never any doubt that this might be all in somebody’s head.

But “Mama” is a reminder that the best chills don’t involve chainsaws, blood and guts. Horror is a product of empathy, of, in this case, fearing for the safety of small children and the reluctant 20something rock musician (Jessica Chastain) stuck with caring for them.

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In “The Last Stand,” Ahhh-nuld parties like it’s 1989. Or tries to.

This is retro “Raw Deal” era Schwarzenegger, a modern day Western with the aging action hero as the sheriff dead set on stopping the army of an escaped drug lord (Eduardo Noriega) from helping the a dapper Latin psychopath racing a souped up Corvette get across the border.

“Not in MY town.”

Yes, we’ve seen this before. But do we really need a reminder of Schwarzenegger’s big-guy/big-guns/bad actor heydays?

Sleepy little Sommerton Junction on the Arizona-Mexico border is where the Austrian-accented ex-narcotics cop Ray Owen (Schwarzenegger) is sheriff, presiding over a trio of inept deputies (Luis Guzman, Jaimie Alexander and Zach Gilford), keeping the peace.

A suspicious character (Peter Stormare, inexplicably doing a Scandinavian/ South Carolina drawl) tips Ray that something is up long before a local farmer’s murder confirms it.

Meanwhile, the drug lord Cortez and his minions have staged an elaborate escape from Federal custody in Las Vegas, and that has FBI agent Bannister (Forest Whitaker) in a tizzy.

The bland bad guy is racing for the border. Call the sheriff, “Tell him to stay out of the way.”

Nothing doing. Better deputize, oh, the ex-Marine with the soccer star’s accent (Rodrigo Santoro) and maybe the local gun nut (Johnny Knoxville), who lends the good guys an illegal arsenal — “That’s between us and Jesus. Ain’t nothing Uncle Sam needs to know about.”

At least he brings along a “Jackass” stunt in the bargain.

It’s a junky, crowd-pleasing movie of sidekicks – Guzman and Knoxville – bad acting, over the top shootouts, and catch phrases.

“You make us immigrants look bad. Dis iz my home.”

As in the Arnold movies of old, guns aren’t merely tools — instruments for jacking up the (mostly cops) body county. They’re caressed, given girls’ names. Kinky. Creepy. VERY pre-Sandy Hook.

They hired Korean director Kim Jee-woon (the suspenseful “I Saw the Devil”) and basically stuck him with staging shootouts – a couple of OK ones  – and a couple of decent car-chases, which probably owe more to stunt coordinator Wade Allen (“Red Dawn,” “Drive”) and the need for that Chevrolet product placement.

All for a formulaic genre movie designed to reintroduce Arnold to a new generation of action audiences.  He gets to show that his years as California governor didn’t improve his acting, and that he’s an “old man” still able to hold his own in the one fist fight “The Last Stand” demands of him. He has his moments, though.

“I’ve seen enough blood and death. I know what’s coming.”

And Schwarzenegger gets to burnish his image in a 100 minute long ad for the National Rifle Association, a jokey shoot-em-up with all manner of over-armed citizenry ready and able to put down their walkers and plug a bad guy when the need arises.

Which it does, this being Arizona and with Arnold being stuck in 1989.

There are filmgoers nostalgic for this sort of fascist/gun fetishist drivel. Not me. Give me “Seven Psychopaths” any day.

MPAA Rating: R for strong bloody violence throughout, and language

Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Forest Whitaker, Johnny Knoxville, Peter Stormare, Luis Guzman

Credits: Directed by Kim Je-Woon, written by Andrew Knauer. A Lionsgate release.

Running time:1:47