Brooklyn's Finest

Brooklyn's Finest_360P

Draws you right in from the start, builds tension to a climactic point late in the film. In the middle, you get to absorb a lot of NYC atmosphere which somewhat compensates for the formulaic nature of the film. You've seen it all before, there's no new ground, but its done in a way that will hold your interest. Grim, adult movie themes highlight only the heavy issues that burden cops in this big city. Cheadle, Hawke and Gere all develop very burnt-out, empty looks in their eyes that help make this film more believable than it really is. Lives have fallen apart (the personal lives of these cops). The script makes it clear that the job is rough on cop families, it makes this point almost to the point of overkill. The women of this film are resigned to the belief that "its a man's world". They have bought this belief system almost totally. And yes I include Ellen Barkin's middle-aged super-boss-cop because she tries to be just like men in order to get to the top of this man's macho cop world/underworld environment. Gere is subtle, very nuanced and effective in his role. Hawke is incredibly explosive in his role of a man desperately overstrung, or at least in need of a good vacation. Cheadle's mixed-up about-to-snap performance works perfectly with Snipes who gives a fine, mature, theatrical style performance. I'm ready to see more of the mature Snipes as his career progresses. All the acting here is great and it overcomes the generally "seen it before" nature of the production. This is basically similar to Greek tragedy, so if you view it that way you won'be let down by the relentless grimness that is here from start to finish. Entertainment value highlighted by enough tension, plus the studied pro performances rate an 8 rating from me.

Brooklyn's Finest is not Hollywood's; it is a bloody cop drama that imitates in the broadest way the fragmented stories of Crash with less coherence, less social value, and less literary merit. Finest is the real crash. Three cops have three very different lives that intersect in the bloodbath so common in the denouement of thriller police stories. Eddie (Richard Gere) is one week from retirement (big cop cliché) with lonely longing for his absent wife and affection for a prostitute. (The clichéd ending to this segment is hard to believe). Tango (Don Cheadle) is undercover but forced to decide to advance corruption or be loyal to the hoods he has infiltrated. Sal (Ethan Hawke) needs a new home for his burgeoning family. As these troubled officers move through their violent world, they mostly beat up people, steal their money, dirty or not, and murder others. No more, no less. I'm going to rest now in the hope that when I return to the keyboard, I have been inspired by some dream muse to find art in this seemingly idiotic story. I'm back, and I see the review is nicer than it should be. I'll not change it in the hope that you'll see it and point out the charms of Brooklyn's Finest that eluded me.

Brooklyn's Finest must be the finest Pimps Whores and Drug Dealers residing in Brooklyn. One cop counts the days to retirement, one cop needs money and one cop wants out from undercover to a desk job. Good thing there weren't anymore cops or the movie would be even longer. For exposition, each cop had somewhere to go to talk. For Hawke it was the Priest in the confessional, Cheadle had the supervisor in the restaurant, and Gere had his hooker. Gere had about a week left on the force. The movie felt like real time. It may seem incongruent but individual scenes were too short and too long. The shootings were too quick, the dying dragged out repeatedly. Hawke would risk everything to get his wife out of the mold infected house. Maybe he didn't steal enough to move, but it looked like he had enough cash for some serious mold abatement and an addition for the children that seemed to pop-up continually. The lead actors were all convincing and the supporting cast was strong. Surely Wesley Snipes was speaking about got going back prison from experience. Ellen Barkin was barkin'. In case we didn't recognize Barkin, Richard Gere sang "Sea of Love" to his hooker friend, one of a few light moments in this heavy dark piece of work. The director, Antoine Fuqua deserves some praise for capturing the performances and juggling the three stories. The dialogue was riddled with profanity. The Fuqua word was shouted by everybody at everybody. The movie was in your face with extreme close-ups. The close ups of the money made the hundred dollar bills look fake. Prominent product placement included the black BMW, Fila logo on clothes and shoes and frequent religious symbols. Perhaps there was a disclaimer from Fila in the end credits, but who could stay that long, considering the clear-out the theater, lyrics of the song over the end credits. The use of the religious symbols in the film would not make the Pope proud. If you like violence, blood, vomit, spitting up blood, and hookers cleaning up between clients this movie is for you, everyone else should stay away.

Greetings again from the darkness. Since "Training Day" became a hit, director Antoine Fuqua has been one of the directors that escape harsh criticism from the Hollywood elite. He is a master of intense moments in time, but I believe many of his movies lack continuity. "Brooklyn's Finest" is no exception. The film follows the unconnected stories of three cops. Richard Gere is the stereotypical veteran cop who is one week from retirement and begins the film with a gun in his mouth. Ethan Hawke is the desperate young cop whose family just keeps growing (his wife Lili Taylor is pregnant with twins) and he longs to provide better arrangements. Don Cheadle is the undercover cop who, if he hasn't already crossed the line, is dangerously close. The best scenes are with Cheadle and Wesley Snipes, who plays a just released from prison hardened criminal. Their dialogue rings true for an undercover cop trying to play both sides and remember what's right. If not for Ellen Barkin's histrionics, the worst scenes would be watching Richard Gere show off his full repertoire of three different facial expressions. Poor Ethan Hawke looks like no one let him eat or shower for 2 months prior to filming. The boy looks sad. Even though we know it's coming, the final act where the three stories intersect is pretty interesting and make for a satisfying shoot-em-up ending. Brace yourself for some hardcore street violence and language and a meandering soundtrack. The film funnels to the point that there is a very fine line between right and wrong for law enforcement types. I prefer to keep the faith that this is a serious exaggeration.

This is a strong movie with powerful performances by the entire cast, especially that of Ethan Hawke whose portrayal of a corrupt police officer carries this movie and warrants special recognition. Richard Gere's performance in some ways is reminiscent of Paul Newman's performance in Fort Apache, the Bronx, that is, of an older jaded police officer who has lost all hope yet perseveres. The movie relies on perpetuating all kinds of stereotypes to move the story along and suggests a level of corruption and violence that if plausible would render our society inoperable. Yet the story works, mainly due to the great acting and the fast paced action which manages to keep the audience's attention. One is kept wondering how the various subplots will work themselves out and who will survive the maelstrom that engulfs all concerned. Don Cheadle also gives a credible performance as an undercover police officer and Wesley Snipes gives a surprisingly measured and multifaceted performance as a street gangster. All in all, a powerful movie.

In Brooklyn, New York, the veteran policeman Eddie (Richard Gere) is a bitter and disillusioned lonely man that will retire in seven days. The catholic dirty detective Sal (Ethan Hawke) is a family man in despair that needs to raise money to buy a better house for his family. The undercover detective Tango (Don Cheadle) is affected by the long period he has been working infiltrated in gangs and has requested to be transferred to an office. Their lives and fates are entwined when Eddie retires and sees a missing girl that has been kidnapped by sex traffickers and he has to take a decision; Sal has to make the down payment of the dreamed house and he does nit have enough money; and Tango is assigned to frame the drug lord Caz (Wesley Snipes) that saved his life years ago and has become his friend. "Brooklyn's Finest" is a gloomy and bitter police story with a cast that is a constellation of stars, some of them with minor parts. I watched this film with great expectations, but unfortunately the screenplay is not original, too long and sometimes confused. The three stories are very well known by viewers of this genre and the narrative is cold, without emotions. The director Antoine Fuqua could (or should) have made a better feature with the available budget and cast. My vote is six. Title (Brazil): "Atraídos Pelo Crime" ("Attracted by the Crime")

'Brooklyn's Finest' follows the path of three cops, each with their own agenda, from three different angles until they intertwine. Another cops vs blacks with drugs movie not even trying to be authentic and with nobody remembering it was made two years from now. Gere, Cheadle, Snipes and a bunch of other seasoned actors waste everybody's time by accommodating the producers of this flick to create the biggest pile of clichés this genre has to offer. Characters you've all seen before in much better productions ('The Wire' came to mind several times) in situations that are lifted from movies and series in which these situations weren't exactly fresh to begin with. No characters are built, no story background is offered. It just barfs the whole thing in your lap and somehow expects you to be amused by it. Completely ridiculous.

Would you steal bread to feed your family? As Dwight from The Office would say, "it's a trick question. The bread is poisoned. Also, it's not your real family. You've been cuckolded by a stronger, smarter male." For Sal (Ethan Hawke), a dirty narcotics officer in Brooklyn's Finest, the answer is clear. Only instead of bread, he is stealing drug money and killing anyone who gets in the way. He needs the money because his pregnant wife is sick from the mold in their home so he needs to pay the down payment on another house he is going to buy. Hawke plays the role with great intensity, just as he did in director Antoine Fuqua's previous movie, Training Day. In that he co-starred with Denzel Washington, only Denzel was the dirty cop, and Hawke played the rookie officer who didn't like what he saw. He got an Oscar nomination for that role, but is just as good, if not better, in this movie. Sal is just one of the three conflicted cops who walk a fine line between cop and criminal. One is Eddie (Richard Gere), who is days away from retirement, and has what is probably the most eventful week of his career. His job is to oversee rookies in the mean streets, and sticks a gun in his mouth a couple of times throughout the course of the movie. His only sources of pleasures are his whiskey and frequent visits with a hooker. The other is Tango (Don Cheadle), an undercover cop who is so deep into the criminal life that he struggles with his own identity. He's been asking for a desk job for years and desperately wants out of the drug beat. The only way he can get out and receive a promotion is by betraying a close criminal friend, Caz (Wesley Snipes). The problem with movies like Brooklyn's Finest is that they often fail to add any depth to their characters in the midst of all the mindless violence. But the great acting from Hawke, Gere, and Cheadle separates this one from the crowd, and makes it a watchable action thriller. And while may not be as good as Training Day, it still shows the rough side of being a cop, and that they may not be as innocent as they appear to be.

Brooklyn's Finest is clichéd cop film only in setup, not in execution. The scripting and a plethora of strong performance elevate the familiar veins that make up the films structure. In fact, three of the most standard-order plot lines are utilized; and undercover cop who blurs the line between righteous and corrupt, a drug cop who exhibits no blurring in his corruption and an aging veteran slugging it through his last week on the job. These cops are played by Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawk and Richard Gere respectively and each gets equal screen time in a triple thread story that eventually converge on one fateful night. Director Antoine Fuqua's latest treads a thin line between tragic and gritty and outright depressing. This is a gloomy film to be sure, everyone is either a cop, murderer, drug dealer or prostitute (sometimes many of the above) and there is no glimpse of sunshine, so to speak, in Fuqua's Brooklyn. I am a big fan of Fuqua, from his John Woo-esquire debut with The Replacement Killers to the classic cop drama Training Day, to the very underrated Bruce Willis war actionier Tears of the Sun, he is more than a competent auteur and always brings out solid performances from his leads. Hawk (who plays the increasingly corrupt Sal) is perhaps the strongest of three leads, but Gere and Cheadle are very convincing in their roles as well. Unfortunately, despite the admirable development of these characters, the aforementioned ordinary narrative leaves little question about where their respective paths are headed. We also get a blazing comeback from the one and only Wesley Snipes as a criminal and friend of Cheadle's Tango. Rounding off the talented main players are Brian F. O'Byrne as Sal's fellow cop and friend and Will Patton as Tango's lone remaining contact to the just world he feels is fading away. As I have iterated many times, it is the stellar work from the key players that makes Brooklyn's Finest worth your time. The drive behind these three cops is equally compelling. Sal has 5 kids (with 6 and 7 on the way) and is swimming in debt. Through a real-estate contact he sets up a deal to move his growing family to a larger house, only if he can get the big score of drug money he needs. As the date approaches for him to come up with the money he grows increasingly desperate. Gere's Eddie is a burnt-out cop who has all but lost respect for the job, and his fellow cops have all but lost respect for him. His only remaining duty is to escort a rookie around for his final 7 days but things go far less smoothly then he could have hoped. Finally there is Tango, a UC who has lost all his ties to the real world. His wife is filing for divorce and he wants to be made detective first grade a.s.a.p. and spend the remainder of his days behind a comfortable desk and away from a life of crime. In one of the best sequences, Tango is asked why the sudden urge to get out. He tells of a night where he was pulled over by the cops for speeding and legitimately considered killing them. He wants out. If only the despair had been laid on a little less thick and the stereotypes that make up the three main characters polished with a bit more inventiveness, Brooklyn's Finest could have been a classic in the making. Instead we get only what we would expect; a gritty, bloody and well acted police actionier. Read all my reviews at simonsaysmovies.blogspot.com