Director: Allen Hughes, Main Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jeffrey Wright, Alona Tal
An ex-cop (Wahlberg) becomes a P.I. after playing vigilante and killing a murderer/rapist, he is cleared of all charges thanks to the “benevolent” interference of the mayor (Crowe) and the police commissioner (Wright). Seven years later, during the last week before elections, he’s hired to follow the mayor’s wife (Zeta-Jones) and get proofs of a love affair. He thinks it’s a straightforward job with a nice paycheck but he finds himself involved into something more complicated and dangerous. Election day for mayor is getting closer and the challenger seems to gain support or at least have an ace up his sleeve for the mayoral debate. All falls apart when his campaign manager is shoot dead, who coincidentally appeared to meet in secret with the first lady of the city. Our hero or, better, anti-hero since his record is far from pristine, decides to dig deep and find out about the mayor’s dirty financial business. Quite predictably the Good triumphs while the hero sacrifices himself. The conniving politician is exposed and brought down and all is back to rainbows and puppies (yeah right…if only…). Well, what can I say? Boring, simplistic, predictable to a fault. Mark Wahlberg is less expressive than John MaClane’s wife-beater and Russell Crowe is inevitably bidimensional, due to the terrible script, he was trying his best. Disappointing –4/10
Ramblings of a cinephile 