city by the sea purport to use long beach and long island a this powerful metaphor or backdrop for it story of crime and loss and and spiritual devastation . long beach be portray a a pathetic and once grand and now completely burn out ruin of a resort and with drug out loser and detritus scramble about the broken down boardwalk . hello . well and the truth be they actually shoot the movie somewhere in new jersey and because the real long beach be not in any way the place they describe . have any of the creative team ever even visit it before . it a lively and raffish and increasingly upscale and and pleasant beach town on long island . while not exactly the hampton and it a cheerful and appeal location and and to make a new york area crime film with such a basically false premise ( even part of it title ) be simply outrageous . i be not from there and but the long beach city council should sue . not just for defamation of character and but also for be associate with such a second rate piece of hackwork . every second of this film strike a false note . every moment seem borrow from other and more successful film of this genre and and there isn not a single aspect of the tale not a plot revelation and a character turn and or an emotional beat that doesn not seem painfully familiar . the film reach it logic nadir when a dead body be throw into the ocean on long beach and and shortly thereafter ( hour . ) and it wash up on the shore of the east river of manhattan . that draw yelp of laughter from the new york audience i saw the movie with . you can not make a gritty new york thriller and get all the fact wrong .