City By the Sea (Dol) | 
 enlarge | Director: Michael Caton-jones
Actors: Robert De Niro, James Franco, Frances Mcdormand, Eliza Dushku, William Forsythe
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: Video
List Price: $6.98
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $6.97 (100%)
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Rating:  52 reviews
Sales Rank: 19074
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 108 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
UPC: 085392208234
EAN: 0085392208234
ASIN: B00007L4OG
Theatrical Release Date: September 6, 2002
Release Date: February 18, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
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
Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 47 more reviews...
 A cursed family with kidnapping and drug addiction December 13, 2008
R. Bagula (Lakeside, Ca United States)
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 December 2, 2008
Bradley F. Smith (Miami Beach, FL)
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 October 13, 2008
Reader (Chicago, IL USA)
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 July 13, 2008
Susan Y. Schoonover (Boulder, CO)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
A brief comment July 18, 2006
magellan (Santa Clara, CA)
Robert DeNiro turns in a fine performance as a dedicated policemen and father who's trying to saving his son from a crime he didn't commit. His job is made all the harder by his estranged relationship with his son, who he hasn't seen in many years. The movie takes place against the backdrop of the once chic city of Long Beach, New York, once a little paradise by the sea, but has since seen better days. Now miles of abandoned old hotels, casinos, and other buildings line the shores, seemingly frequented these days only by junkies, drug dealers, and other outcasts of society, including DiNero's son. DeNiro must battle old prejudices and demons, such as his own father's notorious criminal past, his failed relationship with his son, and a police dept. that has already concluded his son is guilty and is going to bring him in dead or alive. James Franco as DeNiro's junkie son and Frances McDormand also turn in fine performances, although McDormand doesn't get a whole lot of on screen time.
One thing is I usually notice movie scores, since there are many movie composers whose music I like, such as the great Jerry Goldsmith (who recently passed away, but his music will live on), but this movie kept me absorbed enough so that I don't even remember the music. Overall this is a good movie and worth seeing, especially if you're a DeNiro fan.
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