Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Drug addict Joey LaMarca (James Franco) defends himself and kills dealer Picasso. He is injured and goes home to his skeptical mother (Patti LuPone). His estranged father NYPD homicide detective Vincent LaMarca (Robert De Niro) and his partner Reg Duffy (George Dzundza) are given the case of the dead drug dealer. Spyder (William Forsythe) is also after his associate's killer. Michelle (Frances McDormand) is Vincent's girlfriend. Gina (Eliza Dushku) is Joey's girlfriend and baby mama. Fellow addict Snake rats out Joey.There are good actors doing solid work. This material could be given a more grim style. This represents a slow slide in the quality of director Michael Caton-Jones. This should be a more intense thriller and a more heart-breaking tragedy. I keep thinking that this movie should be better. The biographical nature does muddy the story. There is an overall lack of intensity.

This ended up being just an okay crime drama despite the more than decent cast, an intriguing plot and a pretty brilliant performance from James Franco. It's based on a true story about a well respected and dedicated New York City police detective (Robert DeNiro) who has gone to great lengths to distance himself from his past, as his father was executed for the 1950s kidnapping of a child.With a tentative relationship just beginning with his downstairs neighbor (Frances McDormand) Vincent's latest investigation threatens to topple everything as his own (estranged and drug addicted) son has just become the lead suspect in the murder investigation. This is a gritty character drama that I'd expected to be better. 11/6

***SPOILERS*** Since he was eight years old NYPD homicide Detective Vincent LaMarco, Robert De Niro, had to live with the terrible memory that his father was a child murderer who was executed for his crime at Sing Sing prison. As a husband and father Vincent wasn't all that successful either having a broken marriage as well as his estranged son Joey, James Franco, ending up on the streets or boardwalk in Vincent's former home town of Long Beach as a junkie. It's when Joey got into an altercation with his drug supplier Pacassio, Jay Boryes, that lead to the dealer death, with Joey stabbing him in self defense, that finally got father and son together under the most trying and dangerous of circumstances.It's actor Robert DeNiro's incredible performance as heart broken and guilt ridden Vincent LaMarco that really stands out in the movie "City by the Sea". Trying to get his fugitive son to give himself up has Vincent's partner Detective Reg Duffy, George Dezundza, track down Joey in this abandoned warehouse in Long Beach where he's been hiding. It's there where Duffy is gunned down not by joey but drug supplier Spyder, William Forsythe. Spyder mistook Duffy for Joey whom he was out to get for killing one of his street pushers the late Paccisso. Now with the death of a policeman, as well as his father's partner Det. Reg Duffy, on his head Joey is a dead man walking unless his policeman dad Vincent DeMarco can bring him into custody before the local as well as NY police get to him first.***SPOILERS*** With Detective DeMarco putting both his job as well as life on the line he finally gets his son Joey to stop running and meet with him on the Long Beach boardwalk to arrange to give himself up. That after Vincent uncovered evidence that it was in fact Spyder, who was since shot to death by Joey in defending his father, not him who murdered his partner Detective Duffy. Still it took a lot of convincing on Vincent's part to get Joey to give himself up even with him taking a bullet, from a police sniper, for him. Vincent DeMarco was always living not only with the thought of his father being an executed child murderer but in him abandoning both his wife Maggie, Patti LuPone, and son Joey when they needed him most. It was this act of self sacrifice on Vincent's part that in the end more then made up for all that!

City by the Sea is directed by Michael Caton-Jones and adapted to screenplay by Ken Hixon from the article Mark of a Murderer written by Michael McAlary. It stars Robert De Niro, James Franco, Eilza Dushku, Frances McDormand, George Dzundza and William Forsythe. Music is scored by John Murphy and cinematography by Karl Walter Lindenlaub.Based on a true story, plot finds De Niro as Vincent LaMarca, a veteran New York cop who carries around the burden of being the son of an executed child killer. Though comfortable in his life, where he gets on with his cop partner and has a romantic relationship with a lady in his apartment block, things quickly grow dark when it transpires that Vincent's estranged son Joey (Franco), a drug user out at Long Beach, has apparently committed murder.With the trailers at the time of release wrongly hinting at some explosive cop drama, and with De Niro's standing as a serious drama actor on the wane, City by the Sea has pretty much failed to inspire some steadfast support from 2002 onwards. Yet it's well worth inspection by those film fans who appreciate a crisp screenplay and top line acting.De Niro is on form, without doubt, but he is clearly helped by having actors around him who can compete on the same terms. There's a believability to the core relationships in the film, be it De Niro and Franco as father and son, or De Niro and McDormand as lovers, the writing calls for actors of strength to hold court and make this dialogue heavy picture worth attention. And they do, very much so.Narratively the piece thrives on irony and the great old noir staple of past events looming large over a protagonist. Primarily it's about how Vincent deals with the splinters of his past suddenly surfacing in his life. This proves to make the film more a drama than a thriller, there are no high octane deaths and dismemberment's, no back street alleyway wackings, this is very much a character driven, unpretentious and emotionally affecting movie.Just like his actors, Caton-Jones is perfectly restrained, his direction has a nice flow that aids the story, no tricks are needed to beef up the human interest. He allows the principal character's stories to build, making sure that Hixon's adult screenplay comes to the fore; that character reactions are not twee or too far fetched. In fact it's very refreshing to see the way McDormand's girlfriend reacts to the "new" information she has to deal with in her love life. Visually there's some lovely work by Lindenlaub (Rob Roy), where nightscapes and a red sunset stand tall and proud, and Murphy's score is thankfully unobtrusive given the nature of the story. 7/10