Nice effects though.

From my favorite movies..

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Some well known, not necessarily brilliant, actors are collected to stroke a neophyte director's ego in a very tedious and boring film that is a direct steal from Visconti's "Rocco and His Brothers," right down to the soundtrack. Only there is nothing relevant about what is said, other than that there is corruption everywhere. C'mon, let's get a fresh idea or two before stealing from a classic. Charleze Theron delivers another chameleon like performance and Ellen Burstyn twitters away like always. Faye Dunaway has long ago convinced us that she hasn't any real idea of what acting is about other than trying to steal scenes, and Mark Walhberg covers character nuances from A-B(apathetic to bland) while huge pipe organs pound out prophetic over dramatic music to establish the doom to come. It was interesting to note that this pedestrian director didn't direct anything of note thereafter.

A very sensitive, intelligent and ambitious variation on the traditional going-straight story. Mark Wahlberg is just out of prison and determined to keep off troubles but inevitably runs into them when getting involved in the sabotage and in the unforeseen murder. In terms of conventional suspense, the film is too much muted and sombre in order for it to deliver the goods convincingly but as a character study and an exploration of different notions of family, friendship, duty and loyalty, the careful attention to detail pays off. A great cast (Phoenix and Theron perfect as wheel) does help, as does the strongly surprising use of good music.

There aren't many laughs in this dramatic pastiche of corrupt industries and the not-quite-innocent who is swept up in them before finally blowing the whistle.It's not ethnic, but it seems like it. There's a bit of "The Godfather," a dash of "Prince of the City", a soupçon of "On The Waterfront." There are all sorts of conflicts between men and women, family members united against the law -- or that part of it that isn't in bed with the gangsters.Interesting milieu. Mark Wahlberg as the ex con who's trying to obey the rules of his parole finds a job working for his uncle, James Caan, in the subway marshaling yard in Queens. Caan's company does repairs on broken subway cars. In order to make sure they have enough business, Caan has hired Joaquin Phoenix and a couple of bad goons to sneak into the yards at night and damage the cars. Caan's character is not unidimensional. When Wahlberg asks him for a job, he tells Caan that he'd like to work with Phoenix, a childhood friend. Caan gently tries to steer him into a more honorable, if less lucrative, path to success but Wahlberg is insistent. It's a big mistake on Wahlberg's part. There follow intrigue, brutally staged fist fights, and a couple of death, all leading to betrayal.Wahlberg doesn't have that many lines but he handles them well enough. Like the other men, he has a working-class New York accent. Lots of double negatives: "I don't know nothing." Charlize Theron, as Phoenix's doubtful girl friend, doesn't sound much like New York but she doesn't sound much like Johannesberg either. With her big eyes, upturned nose, and plump lips, she's never looked better.In many ways it's a depressing movie because although many characters commit immoral acts, all of them are given human qualities, including some that are generally considered virtues.

Visually, The Yards is very good, whether it is the direction or especially the photography, which is kind of the trademark of James Gray.Because script wise, it is very conventional and little inspired. The movie doesn't revolutionize at all what has already been made previously, and if the story unfolds pretty smoothly, it doesn't fully captivate, also because of a wheezing rhythm.The other big problem is the cast, little convincing. Joaquin Phoenix, though not bad, isn't transcending either, as always. As for Mark Wahlberg, he is too inexpressive and really lacks finesse in his acting for such a dramatic role.