Review of Brooklyn's Finest (2010) by Richard H — 16 Jul 2011

Antoione Fuqua retreats training day but with a little less melodrama this time. A hard edged cops and criminals tale that tries to get deep and dirty but is often just mean and sordid.

Gere plays a veteran cop going towards retirement and isnt awful though a better actor would have got more out of this role. Cheadle plays an undercover cop whose loyalties are in question. The usually excellent Cheadle is only quite good here in this role. Surprise stand outs are Ethan Hawke and Brian O'Bryne as a pair of narcotics cops whose careers are on slightly divergent paths.

Snipes, Patton, D'Onforio and Barkin show up in small roles, along with "The Wire's" Michael Williams. But the movie basically belongs to Hawke who is superb as good guy but bad cop Sal, sturggling with a moral and spiritual crisis.

The ending is a cliche ridden bullet fest but it just about works. Less than the sum of its part and certainley not the work of art the director wanted it to be (And never ever end a movie on a freeze-frame!) but still, not bad for a genre pic.