Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Kyle Chandler, Barry Pepper, Justin Chambers
Director: Allen Hughes
Rated: R (Restricted)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: April 30, 2013
Run Time: 109 minutes
Film: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Extras: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Both Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe had big years in 2012, with “Ted” and “Les Misérables”, respectively. Wahlberg gives a a solid performance with the messy story that he is given. The film keeps switching being being a cop drama to a political war film. I didn’t really hate this film but I do not think that I will give it a second thought after this first viewing. The drama is not very intense and you really don’t fall in love with these characters. So it is worth checking out if got nothing else to do but like I said nothing special.
Official Premise: Seven years after being forced to resign as a New York police officer, private detective Billy Taggart (Wahlberg) takes on his toughest case yet: following the wife (Zeta-Jones) of the city’s hard-nosed mayor (Crowe), who’s convinced she’s cheating on him. But by the time the mayor reveals his true intentions, Billy is already in too deep. Now, with his freedom – and quite possibly his life – on the line, Billy will risk it all in a desperate bid to expose the truth, and seek redemption in a city where second chances don’t come cheap.
Despite the film, 20th Century Fox delivered a nice release with a combo pack including Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy. The digital options include both an Ultraviolet digital streaming and and iTunes digital copy. The film was shot digitally and still looks very impressive and well-detailed with it’s 1080p transfer. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 works with what it is giving here. There is nothing epic that happens here but the dialogue at least sounds great.
The special features included decent but nothing special like the film itself. “Putting It All Together” is an in-depth making-of documentary blended with nice behind-the-scenes footage and interviews. There are six deleted scenes, including an great alternate ending. I saw great since I was not a fan of the ending at all. There is also a theatrical trailer included and also a sneak peek at other upcoming 20th Century Fox titles.