Review of Brooklyn's Finest (2010) by Tuomas R — 23 Oct 2010

"Its a case of righta and wronga.".

Antoine Fuqua hasn't really done anything spectacular since his 2001 'Training Day', which is one of the greatest cop movies ever made. After that his come out with a mediocre 'Tears of the Sun', a decent 'King Arthur' and a terrible 'Shooter'. 'Brooklyn's Finest' should be something he manages best.. a cop movie. But despite the fact that he has a lot of decent actors to his help, can he pull it off again?

A senior police officer Eddie Dugan (Richard Gere), who is a hardened veteran is only a week from retirement. He fights abuse problems, suicidal thoughts and is in love with a whore. Doesn't seem as a bright future for retirement? Then there's a narcotics officer Sal Procida (Ethan Hawke), whose deeply catholic beliefs has made him head for a big family, living in a moldy house. There's gotta be a way out and maybe some dirty money could be the answer... Don Cheadle plays "Tango", an undercover cop who wants out. The FBI wants Butler aka "Tango" to nail a big time drug dealer Cazin (Wesley Snipes), who he has become good friends with. All these paths lead to a unexpected outcome from where there is no easy way out.

Even though the film concentrates on these three main performers characters, and they do it decently, there's one actor who steals the entire movie, even though his role is small but important nevertheless. Wesley Snipes doesn't even have to get in to character, he just is cool and has the credibility of a street gang leader. It's impossible to make Hawke be a badass, he proved that already in 'Training Day'. His looks and his essence just doesn't shout out "Look at me, I'm on the verge of becoming a bad cop!". He's just in panic because his character can't wear a condom because of his religious beliefs... But to go back to Snipes, I've waited for this when he comes back to the big screen and gets out of the spiral of straight-to-dvd movies. Let's just hope that he gets his shit together and does what he does best. Is a credible man of the streets.

The main problem with 'Brooklyn's Finest' is, that the main characters become a bit distant to the audience. The film doesn't concentrate on any of the characters, we just see them do what they do. All of them have interesting backgrounds but in my opinion, this storyline would've worked better in a miniseries for television. I just constantly waited when does the paths between them three meet. The ending seemed a bit rushed and I'm not sure if it's because of the rookie screenwriters script or Fuqua's ambition to top 'Training Day'? There's just not enough depth and emotion in the script.

'Brooklyn's Finest' is just too hollow in the end. It feels as if the filmmakers wasn't sure of what they wanted to tell the audience. The climax at the end doesn't bring any bigger feelings because I just didn't get bonded with any of the characters. I wanted to know more of 'em but the movie was just rushed. If it would've concentrated on maybe just two characters, Gere's and Cheadle's who were the more interesting ones, this movie would probably worked better. Now it's just a movie that awakens thoughts but all of this is forgotten after the end credits. A decent movie needs more than just a beliavable mood, it needs a good script.