The Yards (2000)

Lack of good storyline.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

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.

This somewhat ponderous but very moody film dates back to the year 2000 and it is fascinating to see how the actors, so glamorous at the time of the filming, have changed. Age happens, and in the case of this film it has aged well.The title refers to the rail yards of Queens where contractors repair and rebuild the New York's subway cars. These contracts are lucrative, so graft and corruption rule. When Leo Handler (Mark Wahlberg) gets out of prison having taken the fall for his friends and family, he finds his aunt Kitty (Faye Dunaway) married to Frank Olchin (James Caan), one of the big contractors; he's battling with a minority-owned firm for contracts. Willie Gutierrez (Joaquin Phoenix), Leo's best friend, is Frank's bag man and heads a crew of midnight saboteurs who ruin the work of the Puerto Rican-owned firm. Leo needs a job, so Willie pays him to be his back-up. Then things go badly wrong one night, a cop IDs Leo, and everyone now wants him out of the picture. Besides his ailing mom (Ellen Burstyn) and his cousin Erica Charlize Theron) , to whom can Leo turn? He is drawn into a world of sabotage, high-stakes payoffs and even murder. Then, he discovers a secret that makes him the target of the city's most ruthless family - his own. How Leo responds is a lesson in courage.Strong cast, good screenplay by Director James Gray ('We Own the Night', 'Little Odessa', etc) and Matt Reeves, atmospheric creative cinematography by Harris Savides, and a very beautiful musical score by Howard Shore make this little drama intense and moving. Grady Harp

Not sure why I hadn't heard of this movie before. Now that I have, I can convincingly say that it's mostly first rate and should be seen by anyone interested in those quirky off-the-beaten-path types that still manage to tell a real story without all the Hollywood garbage. Burstyn, Theron, Caan, Dunaway, and Phoenix go all out while newcomer Wahlberg struggles to get over his wooden-ness. It's a minor point, however, since most of his scenes are covered nicely by the more mature actors. Both Wahlberg and Phoenix went a long way with "We Own the Night," but this little piece is how they got started back when. Also, I kind of enjoyed seeing Charlize Theron as the flirty, young gamin who comes to a rotten ending at the hand of her vile lover. Well done !

It is a tale that has been told before. Nothing really new here. The cast was very good. The production design was OK. Lighting and sound should have been better. I wonder about the choices the director made.It is one thing to try to make a Noir film, but I was totally turned off by the hushed tones, and whispers. Conversations seemed to take place in echo chamber. As it continued to be unhearable, it became unwatchable.If you have a quiet media room, then you might get more out of this than I did.There are plenty of other crime dramas out there.