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List Price: $9.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 37168
Released: February 18, 2003 |
| Our Price: $2.69 |
| Used Price: $0.01 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Drama. When a respected New York homicide detective (Robert De Niro) discovers the prime suspect in a murder case is his estranged son (James Franco), he is forced to return home to the decaying boardwalks of Long Beach, Long Island to confront the darkness of his past. During the course of the investigation, he realizes that his failures as a father - and his unresolved anguish about the painful estrangement - have deeply influenced his son's life, and he must put his own life on the line in order to do right by both his family and his profession.
Description of City by the Sea (Widescreen Edition):
A welcome throwback to the cop dramas of the '70s, City by the Sea is an average film improved by its cast. Robert De Niro stars as veteran New Jersey detective Vincent LaMarca, lamenting the once glorious Asbury Park boardwalk, now dilapidated from the decay of changing times. A good cop but a regrettable father, LaMarca must confront past mistakes and repressed memories when his estranged son (James Franco) becomes the prime suspect in the killing of LaMarca's partner (George Dzundza). There's a nagging inevitability to Ken Hixon's otherwise intelligent screenplay, but De Niro and Frances McDormand--as LaMarca's compassionate neighbor and part-time girlfriend--turn this simmering drama into something deeper than it is. McDormand's role would be thin without the depth and humanity she brings to it, and both De Niro and Franco mine gold from their troubling father-son legacy. Based on a true story, City by the Sea has that kernel of authenticity that good actors thrive on. --Jeff Shannon
City by the Sea (Widescreen Edition) Reviews:
Very good true story ruined by a forced ending 
2009-02-09 - City by the Sea tells the true story of three generations of the LaMarca men. It is a story about fathers and sons and the devastating effects the sins of the fathers have on their sons. Vincent LaMarca (Robert DeNiro) is a homicide detective who has had to live down the reputation of his father all his life. When Vincent was a young boy his father, in a desperate attempt for money, kidnapped a baby from a wealthy family hoping to collect a hefty ransom. Before he could be paid off the baby suffocated to death and he was branded a baby killer and given the electric chair. When Vincent had a son of his own he couldn't handle it and walked out on him leaving him to be raised by his mother. Now Joey (James Franco) who is a junkie, has grown up and is wanted for murder. During a drug buy a dealer came at Joey with a knife and in a questionable act of self defense he stabbed the dealer to death. The police begin an investigation which Vincent heads up and as more and more evidence comes in Vincent realizes that the suspect description matches that of his own son. De Niro does a great job of showing the sadness and guilt eating away at Vincent as he begins the task of bringing Joey in and hearing more and more damning testimony about his own son. Franco does a fine job of showing how desperate and hopeless Joey is. For all of his tough bravado he is really just a scared little boy who has nothing but resentment towards his father. The film works good as we watch both men deal with their angst and head off towards their fates alone but towards the end when the two are finally brought face to face the film stops being good and becomes predictable and fake. The two men are crying and apologizing,calling each other son and dad. It doesn't work with what came before it and it feels like too much of an attempt at a happy ending. It really detracts from the film which up until that point was a gritty true story that was very well acted. Now it just plays as predictable and full of the usual cop movie cliches. The supporting cast has a few good performances which include Eliza Dushku as Joey's girlfriend and the mother of their child together, William Forsythe as a scary thug who is after Joey since one of his dealers was the man that Joey killed. Frances McDormand deserves special mention since she takes the most cliched character out of all of them and makes her a strong woman rather than a victim. She plays a woman in Vince's building who is seeing him despite not knowing anything about him. She doesn't know about his father or the fact that he is a father himself. In the film's funniest scene Vincent saddles her with all this information at dinner and to cap it all off he tells her that his son is wanted for murder. The next time she sees Vincent she is going to his apartment to end things when Vincent opens the door and he is holding his grandson. McDormand and De Niro are the best things going for this film. Unlike the ending their acting is strong and doesn't feel forced.
A cursed family with kidnapping and drug addiction
2008-12-13 - The acting in movie is pretty good but the script is kind of a predictable clunker about doom and gloom in drug addict city.
The grandfather was executed, the father had a failed marriage
that left a fatherless undirected son.
A fourth generation complicates the plot, but adds a mellow ending after
shooting and waste set in?
If you are going to produce a film with Robert de Niro and Francis
McDormand, you should have plot and dialog up to it?
Not among DeNiro's best
2008-12-02 - Very average cop drama with DeNiro playing a variation on a theme he's done a million times before. Based on a true story, evidently, but the character actors here make it seem very rote Hollywood. Frances McDormand is decent, as usual, as the older girlfriend. This could have been a plot from NYPD Blue. Watch it, but don't expect to be wowed.
Melancholy parenthood
2008-10-13 - Film is set in Long Beach, NY that long time ago used to be a place where people would meet, great and have fun. These days, place is deserted and destitute full of young people drowning in drugs and alcohol. DeNiro plays a police detective with a past. Decades ago, he left Long Beach for NYC in attempt to get a new start at life. In the process, he has divorced his wife and abandoned their son. He lives in self imposed exile on carefully maintained daily routine that seems to help him keeping his sanity. But that does not last too long as his long estranged son gets in trouble with the law after he stabs to death a local drug dealer. Before long, detective realizes that his love for his son takes presedence over everything else in his life until then: his job, friendship, career and love. It is a touching story about the power of fatherly love and effort of one generation to break the circle of unfortunate life choices of generations before and after. DeNiro gives a fine performance.
Good Film That Should Have Been Great 
2008-07-13 - CITY BY THE SEA is an entertaining "gritty" cop film in the vein of television shows such as HOMICIDE or NYPD BLUE. It's a good film that I recommend to fans of the genre but with its credentials it should have been great. The plot is certainly compelling enough and is based on the true story of a NYC police lieutenant who had the misfortune to be both the son and father of a murderer. Robert De Niro expertly plays the detective, Vince, and has great support from Frances McDormand as his girlfriend, Broadway great Patti Lupone in the role of his bitter ex wife and up and coming young hunk James Franco playing Vince's son Richie, a former high school football star turned pathetic junkie. Much of the film is set at a seedy, mostly abandoned, seaside resort. My IMDB research tells me that though the film is set in Long Beach, LI the movie was actually filmed in Asbury Park, NJ and efforts were made to make that beach town look even more run down than it was at the time and the work paid off in atmosphere and a real sense of geographic place. Several rich themes are prominent in the storyline the most obvious being abandonment issues between fathers and sons. Yet for all the money, talent and intelligent planning put in to this film the special spark that raises a movie to classic status is missing.
