Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on October 2013

In this messy political potboiler, alcoholic low-rent P.I. and disgraced cop Mark Whalberg is asked by the oily NYC mayor (Russell Crowe) to follow his cheating trophy wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones), while police commissioner Jeffrey Wright looks on skeptically. With a cast like this, how could you go wrong? Well, start with a preposterous central conceit, edit it with a chainsaw and cut drop some scenes entirely, just to assure complete incoherence. Then stir in some moral ambiguity and a few suspect coincidences. Some effective scenes elevate this to an entertaining diversion, but overall: broken movie.