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76
(500) Days of Summer
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
66
Bandslam
45
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
29
Collector, The
23
Couples Retreat
80
District 9
61
Extract
39
Fame
xx
Fantastic Mr. Fox
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
60
Funny People
32
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
27
Gamer
41
G-Force
39
Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, The
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Love Happens
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
My Sister's Keeper
42
Orphan
28
Pandorum
63
Perfect Getaway, A
86
Ponyo![]()
35
Post Grad
48
Proposal, The
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
24
Sorority Row
83
Star Trek![]()
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
55
Taking Woodstock
47
Time Traveler's Wife
96
Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D![]()
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
88
Up![]()
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
Adela
39
Adventures of Power
78
Afghan Star
61
After the Storm
66
Afterschool
xx
All the Best
58
American Casino
72
Amreeka
48
Antichrist
73
Araya
62
Art & Copy
55
As Seen Through These Eyes
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
13
Beautiful Life, A
70
Beeswax
35
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71
Big Fan
66
Black Dynamite
51
Blind Date
xx
Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76
Bliss
35
Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
Boys Are Back, The
45
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
Casi Divas
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
59
Collapse
44
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
67
Departures
xx
Dil Bole Hadippa
71
Disgrace
xx
Do Knot Disturb
70
Earth Days
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
Grace
66
Harmony and Me
81
Headless Woman, The![]()
xx
Heretics, The
63
Horse Boy, The
73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
Maid, The![]()
xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
City by the Sea

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 34 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 14 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
Ken Hixon
Mike McAlary (article Mark of a Murderer)
Directed by: Michael Caton-Jones
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 6, 2002
DVD: February 18, 2003
Running Time: 108 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for language, drug use and some violence
Starring Robert De Niro, Frances McDormand, James Franco, Eliza Dushku, William Forsythe, George Dzundza, and Patti LuPone
The gripping story of a dedicated police officer who discovers that the chief suspect in his current murder investigation is his own son. (Warner Bros.)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Basic Instinct 2 Beyond the Gates Rob Roy The Jackal This Boy's Life
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
LA Weekly Chuck Wilson
For the first time in years, De Niro digs deep emotionally, perhaps because he's been stirred by the powerful work of his co-stars, including a subtle Frances McDormand and a ferocious Patti LuPone, as well as the heartbreaking (and achingly beautiful) Franco.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Moves along with a quietude, a scruffy direct plainness that has long gone out of style.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Not an extraordinary movie. In its workmanship it aspires not to be remarkable but to be well made, dependable, moving us because of the hurt in the hero's eyes.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Against the backdrop represented by stark images of abandoned buildings and lost dreams, the tale that is City by the Sea emerges, with the power of the visual cues giving this film its forcefulness.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
It's so bleak that it would play like a contrived neo-noir if it weren't so consistent, committed and obviously sincere.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Calls on De Niro to drum up the sort of emotional intensity that's been allowed to atrophy of late. City By The Sea isn't always worthy of him, but it makes enough demands to bring out his best.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) Luke Y. Thompson
We so often hear the lament that Hollywood films don't have characters we can care about that it's a real pleasure to note that all the people in this one feel fully developed. It'd be nice if there were more of a plot to go along with them.
Variety Robert Koehler
De Niro's reunion with helmer Michael Caton-Jones doesn't stoke the same fire as their previous pere-fils drama, "This Boy's Life," partly because De Niro's latest portrayal of a troubled cop feels so familiar.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
For some reason, the emotional payoff of the film -- the healing of a dysfunctional family -- doesn't quite come off. Possibly this is because Franco doesn't generate the necessary sympathy or father-son chemistry with De Niro, possibly because it's just not in the script.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Of course, bad writing can undo the best actor. If you doubt that, check out De Niro's soliloquy at the film's climax. He's acting the heck out of the words, but they're still dragging him down with them.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Sam Allis
The movie will be remembered primarily for the huge, emerging talent of James Franco, who plays De Niro's troubled son.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
As a character study, City by the Sea is engaging. As a police thriller, it's not all there.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
It's a run-of-the-mill cop thriller but also a gripping family drama. It is in the moments spent untangling the threads of troubled relationships that the movie is at its best.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
A great cast can't quite pull City by the Sea out of the drink.
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Takes a fascinating true story and turns it into a conventional cop thriller, hoking up the provocative three-generation saga of the LaMarca family.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Suffers from dialogue that often sounds like convenient exposition as well as from a climax that feels too pat and prosaic. But the film is peppered with small, explosive scenes that have a refreshing complexity.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
The cast and the direction are too good, in the end, for the rather desultory place the movie ends up.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Collin Levey
Notwithstanding a thin script and a color-by-numbers ending, the movie is redeemed by its solid performances.
New York Post Lou Lumenick
A murky, vaguely fact-based melodrama that quickly sinks into the same swamp as such recent De Niro mistakes as "15 Minutes" and "Showtime."
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
The changes are meant to make it easier for audiences to accept Vincent's loyalty to Angelo and Joey, but they blunt the genetic mystery that made McAlary's story so compelling in the first place.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Shot in gloomy shades of gray, this earnest but banal story about the legacy of bad parenting strands fine actors in a contrived situation and lets them squirm.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Michael Dequina
The saccharine conclusion would be problematic in any film, but given how much talent is involved, it's especially disappointing here.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Has trouble seeming real. Its back story, involving the sins of Detective LaMarca's own father, feels contrived and the eventual resolution is simultaneously shaky and too pat.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Frances McDormand and Patti LuPone are solid as his girlfriend and ex-wife, respectively, and James Franco is just right as his wayward son. They're a talented team. Too bad the movie doesn't live up to their abilities.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
That City by the Sea isn't laughed off the screen is testament to Caton-Jones' attention to actors and to some tightly written scenes.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
Stumbles from restrained, fine-edged realism into blunt and muddy melodrama.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Steve Davis
The biggest shame in this movie is how it wastes Frances McDormand.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
Robert De Niro and Frances McDormand almost rescue this lifeless, clichéd cop drama! Close isn't good enough!
Read Full Review >Village Voice Mark Holcomb
There's nothing wrong with a little creative license, but the abundance of self-serving fabrication in City by the Sea not only diminishes LaMarca's experience and cheapens McAlary's work, it all but desecrates the memory of the real murder victim.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
After the complex buildup of tensions, the last ten minutes of the movie are a comic-pathetic letdown: the subdued acting and the trash-strewn street scenes lead to nothing more striking than the kind of overexplicit clichés heard in mediocre TV dramas. Even De Niro's discipline and skill can't save lines that should never have been spoken in the first place. [9 September 2002, p.162]
Chicago Reader Fred Camper
De Niro sinks this crime drama with his vacant, inattentive performance as an affectionally challenged homicide detective.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Peter Rainer
The role plays all too easily into De Niro's worst current habits. He's dulled himself out in the service of a phony kitchen-sink pseudo-realism. For De Niro, less has become less.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
The true story of the LaMarcas, well told by the late Mike McAlary in Esquire, has been pounded into TV-crime mush by screenwriter Ken Hixon and director Michael Caton-Jones. Shockingly, the acting doesn't help.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Yields the same sort of archetype and the usual results: De Niro's workmanlike in a dismayingly familiar role.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.8 (out of 10) based on 14 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
John N. gave it a9:
I thought this was a beautifully constructed movie; a gripping story, great casting and understandably strong performances. Notably, I welcomed the minimal use of music to tell me how I should feel; the script and performances were largely left to stand on their strengths. It's a mystery to me that this movie had such poor reviews, although perhaps it suited the DVD medium on which we viewed it. Highly recommended.
[Anonymous] gave it a7:
Flawed, but it fleshes out how horrid things can be in NYC's dark side. Deniro acts a bit wussy in a scene, though, and some emotional scenes feel cliched. nevertheless, decent entertainment.
Pat C. gave it a 5:
It was thought-provoking, but would then expose those thoughts as irrelevant. One thought that got through is that sometimes fathers have to make hard choices.
Matt F. gave it an 8:
This movie really taught how no matter what you are and your son may go through, that you'll always try and work things out. His dad (Robert De Niro) was determined to get his son out of trouble.
Tommy L. gave it a 5:
Boring...nothing really wrong with the movie...just boring.
Phil D. gave it an 8:
Am I the only one who actually enjoyed this movie? The story was great, the actors were great. Actually, the only thing I hated was the Spyder caracter...too cliche for me but it's still a great flick.
John J. gave it a 1:
Oh ouch! De Niro produced it....that was his first mistake. It stunk as badly as the scenery looked!
