I was going to write this review without spoilers, but fuck it. It's a piece of shit, and thus, doesn't earn the respect to be treated as something people should go see.
Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, LL Cool J, Dylan McDermott, Cary Elwes, John Heard, and...Justin Timberlake? Ugh.
A lot of people don't know this, but in Hollywood it's common for an actor, actress, or director to sign a multi film deal. Due to those deals, you'll sometimes see high quality actors in sub-quality films. Basically, the studio won't have anything else for the actor so they'll throw them into a producer's pet project or a new director's first time out, etc. That has to be what happened here.
The film is set in a fictional city where tough stances on crime and such have created a mini utopia (think Demolition Man). Justin Timberlake plays a young wannabe reporter working for a local "Free Trader" type of paper (not really news, and mostly ads) who stumbles upon corruption among the city's special elite police force (think SWAT only with more freedom).
This movie is as close to being a train wreck as you can get without being a complete train wreck. The storyline is shaky at best with the entire plot being based on an overheard "Thank you" that honestly shouldn't have even been uttered.
I mean, if you got framed for murder would you thank the person whose testimony helps put you away for manslaughter instead? Maybe right? What if I told you he was one of the people who actually committed the murder and you are aware of that fact?
The more I think about it, the more I simply cannot believe how badly this film is written. Take every stereotype of "liberal beliefs of police and journalists" and you'll find them here:
-Evil corrupt police that answer to nobody
-Every journalist is a hero with unquestioned integrity and none just get their stories off the news wire
-A city and system setup to protect the rich and keep the poor down
-Minority criminals who are really just poor folk struggling to survive
The insanity doesn't end there though, you'll see:
-a cop shoot a hostage so he could shoot the heart of her captor (It still does amaze me that Hollywood is this stupid)
-corrupt cops who don't bother to put on masks to rob a drug lab and not only letting everyone see them up close, but also leaving them all alive
-Those same cops returning to kill one guy they overhear threatening to turn them in and leaving the only other person there, who is a witness to their robbery and murder, alive
-Those SAME cops spending the rest of the film trying to KILL a journalist who didn't even witness their crimes, but they feel they must kill him to protect themselves
-a cop that looks like a strung out junkie committing attempted murder in front of public crowds without a care in the world of who sees him.
-Parking a car down the road from a witness' hideout, then lighting up a cigarette and walking without using cover directly to the hideout
-Parking the same car (that was destroyed by an explosion) in a parking garage in the city and hoping it's not found. I'm still wondering how exactly he drove it there.
There's so much more stupidity I can't possibly list it all. The whole thing is just ignorant.
It doesn't help that the direction is just as bad. The scenes of Morgan Freeman pontificating who-knows-what is just pointless.
Overall, this is just an absolute waste of time and talent.
1 out of 10 (the one point is for the acting)
Oh, and I almost forgot, Justin Timberlake was passable as an actor. Nothing good, nothing horrible. I'll actually give him credit for changing his looks and speaking style enough so that he's not a distraction to the overall movie.