This film is just awful. The only redeeming quality this film possesses is that they cast Eliza Dushku.That's it, folks. The people saying that it was good have an optimism complex larger than John Goodman. From Frances McDormand's awkward body language (and face touching) to Bob DeNiro's stilted play-up of father/son tensions to John Forsythe's contrived bad guy persona, this movie is downright terrible. I was surprised to learn it was made in 2002, since the score made it sound like it was from the mid-90s.And the fact that Eliza Dushku is hot doesn't really matter since she disappears 3/4 of the way through the movie after telling Bobby DeNiro that she is going back to using again. This is after the audience got no indication that she was having any trouble, and even witnessed her tell James Franco's character to stay clean earlier on.The film just tries way too hard to be dark. The drug use is visually brief, but referenced throughout. The setting is good (Long Beach, NY), but there's very little past-to-present context besides a few comments by the cast. The father/son element is meant to be two-fold, with DeNiro playing a guy battling his own father and his own son's fates, but by the end of the movie you can tell the writers did not have fun playing with that material.If I could give it negative stars, I would.

This movie is a tense drama,with Di Nero playing a signature character, a big city cop who is drawn into an investigation where his estranged son turns out to be the top suspect.It further expands into his complicated relationships with his ex-wife, and the father who was executed for a botched kidnapping in the 1950's.My problem with the film is that there is this key bit of information that would have ended the story in about five minutes that people who know don't talk about and people who could do something about it could really use. That this kid is on the run from a drug lord. This information isn't relayed until the last act of the movie, leading up to the climax, but if someone had just said something at the beginning of the movie, well, I guess we wouldn't have a movie.Enjoy it because Di Nero elevates it.

CITY BY THE SEA stars Robert DeNiro and was directed by Michael Caton Jones whose previous big films include MEMPHIS BELLE and THE JACKAL . Somewhat strangely it only received a very limited release in Britain as it sank without trace at the box office . In fact I'm not even sure it got a cinema distribution deal such was its obscurity . Bare in mind however that both DeNiro and Caton Jones best known work were way in the past with the actor now known as someone appearing in cameo roles in forgettable movies and the director being known as someone who came from a working class Scottish background who made good , even though very few Scots could name more than two films he's directed As you might expect CITY BY THE SEA is something you might pick up at the DVD store , watch it one evening then by the time you're having breakfast the next morning you'll have forgotten ever seeing it . . It's certainly not terrible but neither is it more passable than being mediocre , it's a routine thriller that's far too routine . DeNiro plays a cop called Vince LaMarca whose father was executed for murder and now his son is on the run after being accused of killing a cop . Much of the emotional baggage of LaMarca goes totally unexplored and you'd never know of this family history until one of the characters occasionally brings it up via dialogue . In fact if LaMarca was written as female then you'd honestly believe that this was yet another variation of a TVM made for women

If this movie was a gas, it would be inert. Although "inspired by a true story", it's not all that truthful. However, that does not distract from the picture. What matters is that the "action/thriller/drama" contains very little of anything. This is not even a passable "popcorner". It is, however, OK to use as background noise if you are doing some ironing, or tidying up around the home. DeNiro has done so much better, it is a shame to see this trite, flat, boring waste of film stock. Too, it is difficult to see how bad DeNiro is physically. He had to wear a heavily-padded suit to portray Al Capone. He was in top shape for "Heat". Now, he's a puffy, overweight, pasty blob. He and Steven Seagal ought to get a discount membership at Weight Watchers. While living in Shanghai, China, I picked up a copy of the movie for the equivalent of $1.15 - I want my money back.