This Long Beach thriller should have been a nice noir outing, atmospheric and exciting, instead it's a lousy melodrama; it has a nice cast (DeNiro, Dzundza again as a sidekick, DeNiro's movie ex—wife Maggie), a great title, and nothing else. De Niro looked rather bored and blasé. As I knew not what 'city by the see' stands for, I imagined a small town atmospheric noir thriller.<br /><br />Caton—Jones will not raise above the level of his own BASIC INSTINCT 2 and THE JACKAL—star—vehicles, essentially derivative and exploitative; only that CITY BY THE SEA is below those, and yet another wasting of a De Niro performance (--though Caton—Jones is not alone to blame—as De Niro himself looks rather uncooperative--). Caton—Jones' flicks essentially lack kick, gusto and excitement, and this De Niro vehicle is worse than usual. Other than 'Maggie', a movie with ugly actors.<br /><br />De Niro's ex-wife Maggie (some Patti LuPone) is quite hot in the MILF class, you can see her tits in her first scene, when her son comes home at night. Otherwise, other than Maggie's tits, the flick is completely disappointing, it has no atmosphere, and the noir is not an anaerobic genre, De Niro's acting seems again to be on autopilot, something happened to this guy, he looks wholly disabused and unappealing—and only think at the stallion he was in the '70s …. It's not about age, but about losing brio and direction.<br /><br />Dzundza is quite uninspired in his supporting part, too. CITY BY THE SEA recalled me Verhoeven not only because of Caton—Jones' BI installment, but also because of Dzundza, much better as Douglas' sidekick; Verhoeven knows how to do exploitation, Caton—Jones doesn't.