Fresh out of jail, having taken the rap for his friends, Leo (Wahlberg) tries to get a job at the local train repair yard and gets taken under the wing of corrupt fixer Willie Gutierrez (Joaquin Phoenix) and his boss, and Leo's uncle, Frank Olchin (James Caan).
Made by the same director as We Own The Night, and with the same lead actors, the results are pretty much the same. Phoenix dominates as the corrupt and amoral Gutierrez, increasingly desperate as his plans go awry. Caan gives as good as he gets and brings a certain gravitas that only a man who's played opposite Pacino in the Godfather can. Charlize Theron is a surprise though, almost unrecognisable in what must have been, like Wahlberg, one of her first films. Wahlberg also looks young and is outclassed by the rest of the cast, but this was early in his career and you can see, looking at his later films, that he's improved, probably by knowing what roles he can't do as much as what he can.
Speaking of which, I watched one of his latest films, 2 Guns with Denzel Washington. Two agents, Bobby Trench (Washington) and Mike "Stig" Stigman (Wahlberg), unaware of each others true role, rob a bank to implicate a Mexican drugs baron Papi Greco (Edward James Olmos) and end up stealing $43 million belonging to the CIA.
A more-than-decent action film, with a fair amount of genial banter between the two leads. The plot is above average as well, with enough double crosses to make sure you don't take it for granted. The only thing which lets the whole thing down is the support, with Olmos looking like he can't wait for the cheque to arrive and Bill Paxton trying to be a mean CIA agent. Paula Patton is also underused as the love interest, but this is basically a buddy movie with a few twists and lots of bangs and crashes. Wahlberg takes to his role rather well, but is somewhat outclassed by Washington, as you'd expect (he's better than Sly, though). Overall, pretty good and a superior pizza movie.
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