Rating: 
Summary: City By The Sea-One of De Niro's Best
Review: City By the Sea, a great thriller with understated performances from excellent Robert De Niro, Frances McDormand and James Franco. City By the Sea takes place in New York and is primarily about a lost son who becomes a drug addict and murders a dealer, because he owes him an extensive amount of money. Then he is set up for another crime, by a deadly rival and accused of murdering a cop who happens to be Robert De Niro's friend and partner. Robert De Niro plays a detective named Vincent La Marca, he has a girlfriend who is played by Frances McDormand. Soon, the story develops, but is quite humorless and I should add that this film is based on a true story. The film's story is based on a 1997 article in the New York Times newspaper. From here, we get a more predicitible plot and a serious performance from James Franco, who I should add was in the recent box-office smash, Spider-Man. Franco does a great job as a lost son, who doesn't know what to do with his life and become involved in drugs and other street business. He is not in control and he even has a girlfriend, played by beautiful Eliza Dushku. City By the Sea is rated R for Drug Use, Language and Some Violence. It has a well earned R rating, so this film is not the best choice for preteens. City By the Sea also features beautiful scenery of New York, from Manhattan to Long Island, where the film actually is named from. Because the film specifically takes place in Long Island, New York. I would definetly suggest seeing City By the Sea, a powerful drama with riveting performances that you'll want to remember. See City By the Sea, in theatres everywhere September 6, 2002.`
Rating: 
Summary: Requiem for a Dream with some crime drama
Review: All I could think about was "Requiem for a Dream" when I saw this movie. The story of a hot, ex-high school football star (Joey Nova, the character played by James Franco) who has fallen victim to drugs and seems to be about as low as you can go. But while Requiem for a Dream kills all hope for people with a range of addictions, City by the Sea seems to rekindle a little hope not only for Joey Nova, but also for his police lieutenant father and toddler son. Not as powerful a movie as Requiem but probably the best offering this weekend.
Rating: 
Summary: Part of the six o'clock news genre
Review: This movie shows the media has hungry for shock value entertainment only...the cops wanting to arrest people who are framed for murder, and a lot of patheic people whose lives really get out of control. That's not Hollywood, that's real life and this movie is too loaded with it.Somehow DeNiro and James Franco manage to turn in good performances in an other-wise depressing film, and we have too much of that these days.
Rating: 
Summary: First Rate
Review: In this gritty New York drama, De Niro and Franco add two first rate performances to their already impressive cinematic repertoires. De Niro is a Vincent, aworld-weary cop, divorced and haunted on a two generational front: his father was executed for the murder of a kidnapped child, his son is a junkie on the streets struggling to survive. Franco plays De Niro's tortured son, wandering through the burnt out former Long Beach boardwalk area looking for his next hit and dreaming about escaping to Key West to find a better existence. The basic plot revolves around the self-defense killing of a drug dealer which leads to the shooting of an investigating police officer, but the real drama lies in the unresolved pathos sensed between father and son. De Niro is fantastically unable to express his disappointment verbally, yet emotes openly with his eyes and body language. Franco, reminiscient of 50s icon James Dean, should win an Oscar for his totally believable portrayal of a son that feels he has lost his father's love and can do nothing positive in his life until he gains the recoginition he deserves as a son.
Look for Patty LaPone (Evita) as the mother who simultaneously rips De Niro apart while wanting so desperately to believe her son when he tells her he wants to get clean.
Powerful, memorable performances all around. Recommended highly.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping Performances Make The Film.
Review: Once again, the great Robert De Niro hits another one out of the park, taking what might otherwise have been a standard cop film, and making it something special. City by the Sea tells the true story of Vincent LaMarca, a cop whose junkie son was the prime suspect in the murder of a Police Officer. (I haven't read the article, by Crime reporter Mike McAlary, on which the movie is based, so I don't know how faithful the movie is to the real deal. I do know that the real LaMarca was retired when his son was wanted, not on active duty, as he is in the movie.) This seems like a TV movie-of-the-week, but Director Michael Caton-Jones has drafted some top-notch actors, and they help elevate what might otherwise have been a predictable drama. De Niro delivers an Oscar-caliber performance; just look at his scene with James franco towards the end...All of the guilt this man has been feeling for abandoning his son comes welling to the surface as he fights to save him. They're virtually strangers, but they both wish things could be different. Franco is a revelation as the accused Cop-killer Joey LaMarca; I've never seen him in a non-pretty-boy role, and he does a good job, as does Frances McDormand, who makes the best of the stereotypical "Girlfriend" role. While far from DeNiro's best, City by the Sea is a gripping film, and definitely worth a look.
Rating:
Summary: Heart-wrenching story of family
Review: For me, City By The Sea (based on actual events) is the story of three generations of LaMarca men. In spite of his father (who desperately kidnapped a baby that accidentally died and was "given the chair"), New York City homicide detective Vincent LaMarca (Robert DeNiro) has had a long, successful career. The stakes are highest in his latest case: trying to protect his estranged and only son Joey (James Franco) who, on a high, killed a dope dealer in Long Beach (the "City by the Sea") and possibly a cop, Vincent's partner Reg (George Dzundza). Frances McDormand plays Vincent's girlfriend who he keeps at arms length. Her apartment is just below his, yet she knows nothing of his personal history. Vincent can't seem to escape his past, the bad name set by his father, yet he wants to finally do right by his own son as well as his girlfriend and himself. Some will say this film is slow. I say, not all movies are fast-paced and action-packed. City By The Sea is full of emotional turmoil and an all-star, award-winning cast. DeNiro's role is a bit calmer that his usual, but it's still a DeNiro performance with some emotionally heart-wrenching dialogue, especially with his son. James Franco, who received a best actor award for TNT's James Dean, has whatever it is that makes the audience unable to look away. His character Joey isn't a bad kid. He's just honestly trying to get himself out of the messed up life he's made for himself. Franco has that James Dean intensity on screen, most definitely. Frances McDormand's role is pretty subtle, but she makes it as real as possible. William Forsythe, who I usually see as one of the "good guys" (cop, FBI), plays Spyder, boss to the dope dealer that Joey killed. Keep your eyes open for a pretty news reporter named Vanessa. She may not look familiar, but she's DeNiro's daughter, Drena. - B+
Rating:
Summary: wonderfully acted.. done before though
Review: Go out and rent the other twenty five films out there that are exactly like it. You'll thank me in the morning.
Rating:
Summary: Good acting, Very Good storyline.
Review: This is a movie with a good handle on reality-- warts and all. It focusses on imperfect characters who feel completely real-- incuding DeNiro, whose acting, bad haircut, extra weight, and "average joe" clothing all successfully overcome our preconceived notion of DeNiro as a top-of-his-game mafiosa.
Instead, we see DeNiro, but AS THIS CHARACTER: a warts-and-all cop & bad father, looking for a second chance. Also, DeNiro's star power doesn't overshadow this movie's second plotline, about a junkie (DeNiro's son), also looking for a second chance....and some kind of family life. Likewise, the physical setting and peripheral relationships all have a REAL feel. Viewers will come away with the feeling that this is the seamy, redeemable side of real life.. a place you wouldn't want to live, but a state you can recover from. *spoilers ahead. Stop reading now, if you hate spoilers.*
We get a happy ending, but not a Hollywood unbelievable ending. Some of the relationships STAY fractured, and other elements of the resolution also have that real, imperfect, but therefore acceptably non-saccharine happy ending.
Rating:
Summary: The Sins of the Fathers . . .
Review: "City by the Sea" begins as a typical cop drama - Vincent DeMarca (Robert DeNiro) is a good solid New Jersey cop with a history. His father was executed as a "baby-killer", and now Vincent's own son Joey (James Franco), whom he abandoned as a young boy, is a strung out junkie suspected of killing DeMarca's partner. The scenes are predictably dingy and muted, with Frances McDormand popping out of her apartment now and then as DeMarca's girlfriend. The first part of this movie honestly felt like the pilot for a new television drama - with calculated character introductions and back story. But then something marvelous happens: the quality of the acting kicks in to elevate the film beyond its script. James Franco is astonishingly convincing as a junkie who both loves and despises his father, and DeNiro fools us into believing he's just an ordinary guy until the moment when all the layers are stripped off. Frances McDormand does a competent job with what she is given (not much) while adding a needed texture to DeMarca's life. This film is probably the quietest cop drama I've ever seen because it's not about crimes one can be arrested for. It probes the fragile relationship between fathers and sons, and the obligations each needs to face. The film never picks up the slow paces it sets up in the beginning, so those hoping for the high action of traditional cop dramas will be disappointed. Make no mistake: this is a three-star movie raised to four stars by the performances of DeNiro and Franco. Still, the pivotal scene is a powerful one.
Rating:
Summary: Good, But Flawed
Review: City By The Sea is actually based on true events. Although it was a good movie, the whole setting and design was dull, and the actors,besides DeNiro, weren't casted well. Frances wasn't that bad, but they could have picked somebody besides James Franco (he is a good actor, but his whole role in this one was terrible). Good movie, but only focus on DeNiro.
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