In Broken City Mark Wahlberg plays Billy Taggart, a former New York cop who was good at his job, but now works as a private detective. New York Mayor Nicholas Hostetler (Crowe) is an admired leader, but believes his wife (Zeta-Jones) to be having an affair. So Taggart is hired to follow the mayor’s wife and find out the truth. However all is not as it appears in this town, and Taggart’s unsavoury past is used to embroil him in a bigger scandal as he’s double crossed. But they picked the wrong guy to cross as Taggart’s need for payback and justice soon takes over.

Broken City is a great action-thriller which pits two fantastic characters against one another. Wahlberg is in familiar territory (especially if you’ve seen The Shooter), a (broken) city suburb he knows well. Crowe really shines as the mayor, and carries off the balance of ruthless politician and stalwart public figure terrifically, especially as plots begin to unwind. There are a good number of twists and turns as we navigate the pathways of this city, into dark alleyways of intrigue and cover-ups, and we’re taken along on a fun ride. This is a great film for anyone who likes seeing the seedy underbelly of a city, or perhaps those who just live in one.

Classic, grimly realistic but straight-forward ‘film noir’ melodrama about a tough cop, Lt Vittorio Candella (Mature), walking a difficult line between his duty and his friendship with the notorious Rome crime-family, as he pursues wounded hoodlum Martin Rome (Conte), the chief suspect in a murder, through the tough streets of late 1940s New York City.

Rome, jewel thief and multiple-murder suspect (including that of a cop), and Candella share a common rough childhood but have taken different life paths. One is the hard, ruthless ‘crim’ who will stop at nothing to achieve his ends; the other a straight, professional, very human cop, unaffected by the grime into which his job takes him. Both Mature, once generally considered to be of limited acting talent, and Conte, who subtly establishes a truly dangerous persona, put in convincing performances in their respective roles. The supporting cast of Berry Kroeger as slimy defence attorney Niles and Shelley Winters as Brenda, Rome’s ex-girlfriend who shelters him capably fill out the story as it moves to its inevitable conclusion.