A twisting tale of crime and corrupt cops in Brooklyn, ‘Brooklyn’s Finest’ is a bloody, action infused, yet drawn out and somewhat confused film. The film follows the lives of three of members of Brooklyn’s 65th prescient. Tango, played by Don Cheadle, is a narcotics cop who’s been undercover too long. His marriage is failing, he’s not getting promoted like he wanted and he’s realizing life may be better on the wrong side of the law. His close relationship with Wesley Snipes character, Caz, a drug kingpin, and the violence against the black community by the PD isn’t helping his allegiance. Ethan Hawke plays Sal, a down and out cop who just wants to do right by his family, regardless of the cost. It’s the last part that drives his story as he is on a narcotics task force that performs raids on known drug dens putting him in direct contact drug money….drug money that could put his family in a better place. Also twining through these stories is Richard Gere’s, Eddie. Eddie is a 22 year veteran with nothing and no one who just wants to get through his last week on the force. Throwing a wrench in Eddie’s plans is the mayors new program that throws rookie cops in with grizzled veterans and places them in the highest crime areas. These three story lines combine and intertwine to form the plot of ‘Brooklyn’s Finest’, but the question remains…are the stories worth telling?
Well as they say two out of three ain’t bad, but if this movie is the standard of measure I say they’re wrong. This film suffers terribly because of the third, Eddie’s story arc doesn’t fit in with the other two, is uncomfortably disturbing at times, and to be honest is just unnecessary. The film’s drawn out feel could have been easily streamlined if this entire part was just removed, boom you have a more enjoyable movie. Because they tried to fit in so much, the other parts of the film suffer from lack of screen time and depth; both Sal and Tango’s stories are worth telling but feel incomplete. It’s very disappointing because their angles were so interesting but you get almost nothing out of them, I would go so far as to say each storyline, except for Richard Gere’s, is deserving of its own movie or at least enough of this one to fully tell what needs to be told. I’d hate to stay here and harp on the whole Eddie segment but it really was horribly bad. Look Antoine Fuqua I get it, you’re trying to be “gritty” and “real” but can you do so without giving me a 2 minute scene of Richard Gere getting oral from a hooker, and did you really need to show that same hooker cleaning herself after….umm…servicing a client? That stuff doesn’t make me believe the story more, it just makes it awkward and uncomfortable. Moving on, I don’t think Ethan Hawke gave his best performance here either. His “I’m emotionally distraught but look like I smoked an ounce of weed” look wears thin after about ten minutes; you start to wonder why no one is questioning the guy. The ending….ohh the ending, I know ‘Crash’ was a big hit when it came out. Everyone was in awe of the storytelling ability required to have so many people’s lives intersect and end up in a similar place, but the ending in this film was just too damned convenient, predictable, and even somewhat anti-climactic to achieve anything close to awe inspiring.
I suppose it wasn’t all bad. As I said earlier two of the stories were interesting, and Don Cheadle’s undercover cop Tango really left you wanting more. There are some good action scenes and real crime drama going on. Dare I say that Wesley Snipes was back in full ‘New Jack City’ form, I love the guy as a hero but damn is he a good villain. The one good thing I can say about Fuqua’s ability to tell a story is that you really start to question yourself while watching, “Would I have the integrity to be a good cop?”, “Is what they’re doing really wrong?”, kind of like the age old question “Is it wrong to steal bread if your starving?”, this movie does end up making you second guess your moral standing on issues that you may have been certain about prior to viewing. Alas, this is not enough.
Even with its merits ‘Brooklyn’s Finest’ ends up being a film that leaves you squirming in your seat, not from the on screen content mind you, but from boredom. It’s uneven pacing and incomplete storylines leave you completely dissatisfied and utterly disappointed in what might have been. This is simply another case of a great trailer for a horrible movie. Now that I think about it I think they may have known this because if you check the trailer you’ll see that Gere is only shown for about 2 seconds in one of those “I’m too cool for school” poses. Everything else is heavy on Snipes and Cheadle while rockin’ some Jay-Z in the background. Not that I think I need to say it, but because I have to, DON’T see this film. I haven’t been this disappointed in a crime drama since ‘Righteous Kill’. NOT in theaters, NOT on rental, if you feel you must wait for it to hit HBO.
1 out of 5 Guttenbergs
