"city by the sea" purports to use long beach, long island as this powerful metaphor/backdrop for its story of crime, loss, and spiritual devastation. long beach is portrayed as a pathetic, once grand, now completely burned out ruin of a resort, with drugged-out losers and detritus scrambling about the broken down boardwalk. hello?! <br /><br />well, the truth is they actually shot the movie somewhere in new jersey, because the real long beach is not in any way the place they describe. had any of the creative team ever even visited it before? it's a lively, raffish, increasingly upscale, and pleasant beach town on long island. while not exactly the hamptons, it's a cheerful and appealing location, and to make a new york area crime film with such a basically false premise (even part of its title) is simply outrageous. i'm not from there, but the long beach city council should sue. not just for defamation of character, but also for being associated with such a second rate piece of hackwork. <br /><br />every second of this film strikes a false note. every moment seems borrowed from other, more successful films of this genre, and there isn't a single aspect of the tale - not a plot revelation, a character turn, or an emotional beat - that doesn't seem painfully familiar.<br /><br />the film reached its logic-nadir when a dead body is thrown into the ocean on long beach, and shortly thereafter (hours?), it washes up on the shore of the east river of manhattan. that drew yelps of laughter from the new york audience i saw the movie with.<br /><br />you can't make a gritty new york thriller and get all the facts wrong.