Plausibility hits the “Breaking Point” early in this New York City action noir about a coke-addled defense attorney who gets tangled up in a series of increasingly unlikely murders, feuds and double-crosses.
Eighties relics Tom Berenger (as the defender) and Armand Assante (as an ambitious DA) head the cast, but only Busta Rhymes (as a vicious pimp) provides a spark, getting the movie off to a suitably sordid start by tossing a baby out an apartment window. (A miraculous catch saves the baby’s life, the first of many hard-to-believe episodes.)
Amid much pursuit of the baby and a mishmash of plotlines, the law and the criminals freely cross into each other’s territory to stir up one zany twist after another. A wink of self-awareness might have made this a guilty pleasure; instead it’s a howler along the lines of this fall’s “Law Abiding Citizen.”