There's some wars you fight, and some wars you walk away from.

Date: Monday 25th February
Film: Broken City (2013)
Director: Allen Hughes
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe and Catherine Zeta-Jones
Running Time: 01 hour, 49 minutes
Rating: 6/10

Monday night, post Oscar party. The CW and I are exhausted, but it's a free screening and we have nothing better to do (apart from catching up on sleep, perhaps) so off to The O2 we schlep for Broken City.

We'd watched the trailer but, at this point, hadn't seen any reviews or comments on the film - other than that Graham Norton Show appearance - so we were going in a little blind. We knew the basics of the plot - Mark Wahlberg plays a private investigator hired by Russell Crowe's mayor to look into his wife's (Catherine Zeta-Jones) affair and things don't go all that smoothly.

But, that synopsis isn't really what Broken City is about. Yes, that is the basic storyline but within 5 minutes of watching it becomes clear that this film wants to show more than that. It wants to show corruption of politicians, officials, and public figures. It wants to investigate the humanity of those living and working alongside these figures. It wants to be a slick psychological thriller.

The problem with Broken City is that, as hard as they try to create a back story  you don't really get a feel for any of the characters. I don't think I particularly liked any of them. There are scenes that make no sense to the film, at times they don't seem to fit with what you are seeing. As if they were exposition scenes for plot lines that were cut away in editing.

Mark Wahlberg plays his part very well, providing his role is to play Mark Wahlberg. There doesn't appear to be much of a distance from other thriller/action films he has made before.

It was watchable but, like Contraband it just didn't engage. It tried to hard to be slick and meaningful, and lost something along the way.

Challenge day: 153
Challenge time: 09 days, 16 hours, 51 minutes
Challenge film total: 120

I've got to try and fix this. Trust me, I know what I'm doing.

Date: Sunday 27th January
Film: Contraband (2012)
Director: Baltasar Kormakur
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Giovanni Ribisi, Kate Beckinsale and Ben Foster
Running time: 01 hour, 49 minutes
Rating: 6/10

Sunday Night Film Club is, again, attempting to make a revival. A certain blue cross sale has bolstered our DVD collections and the SNFC 'to watch' list is getting a little out of control, something we attempted to remedy this week by watching Contraband and Wild Bill.

Unfortunately, this didn't pan out. Mainly because forcing our attention onto Contraband was exhausting.

With a cast of actors I adore (and Kate Beckinsale) and a relatively simple plot - a retired smuggler takes on one last job to settle a debt for his brother in law - we were expecting a bit of old fashioned action fun. We didn't get this.

Contraband tries, really tries, but it left me cold. The action scenes just didn't seem to have enough action, the emotional scenes seemed a little forced, and there is only so much excitement you can get from a shipping ferry.

The biggest downside for me had to be Giovanni Ribisi. Someone who I normally adore, I rarely find fault with his performances, but in Contraband he appeared to choose an unusual accent, one that could only be described as Boston-weird, and ran with it. To the point where it became a major distraction in every scene he was in, and belittled his role as the bad guy.

I can't even say Contraband was an easy to watch action film. It just left me feeling a little cold.

After that it was hard to muster up the energy to watch Wild Bill. SNFC finished a little earlier than usual this week.

Challenge day: 124
Challenge time: 07 days, 17 hours, 25 minutes
Challenge film total: 94