Brooklyn’s Finest
Directed By Antoine Fuqua
Released Friday Feb 26, 2010 Nationwide
Running time: 133 minutes
Award-winning Director, Antoine Fuqua is best known for his
gritty storytelling and drama-filled films like Training Day, Shooter and most recently Tears of the Sun. His latest cops and robbers-genre release Brooklyn’s
Finest doesn’t stray too far from what
seems to work for Fuqua – sex, action and naked women.
Set against the bowels of the New York’s East Brooklyn, Brooklyn’s
Finest boasts an all-star ensemble led by
one of Hollywood’s most talked about bad boys, Wesley Snipes. Snipes plays Caz, who is also a
recently freed drug kingpin that the audience will find it hard not connecting with.
Even though we’ve seen this character from Snipes many times before, he’s able
to bring Caz to life.
Most Fuqua films highlight a graying between good versus
evil. Brooklyn’s Finest is no different as it is able to engage audiences with
plenty gun-totting, action-driven movie-lovers. That won’t outshine the
greatness of actors like Richard Gere (who plays Eddie) and Don Cheadle
(playing Tango).
Both seasoned actors portray roles of vulnerable yet cunning
police officers. Eddie, a worn out veteran cop, merely wants to finish out his
tenure considered a good cop. When the film opens, he’s at the start of his
last seven days of duty. To get him through it, he employs loyal companions –
liquor and the neighborhood prostitute.
Tango (Don Cheadle) is an experienced undercover who wants
out of his life on the streets for a cushy desk job as a detective. Ethan Hawke
plays Sal, a narcotics officer balancing the pressures of a growing family and
constant opportunities of temptation. All of the officers have bouts with
corruption and failures, all of which become very obvious.
The script was written by Michael C. Martin and Brad Caleb
Kane and feels a lot like the burnt-out cop stories that began to sprout in the
’70s, crossed with the dirty-cop movies that have seemingly been around
forever. In each of the Brooklyn’s Finest
police stories, happening simultaneously throughout the film, these cops have
lost all perspective on their jobs yet they seem unashamed and unaware of their
own irrational behavior. This is
most apparent with a desperate Sal (Ethan Hawke), who pockets money from a dope
bust.
Each characters individual challenge make this
male-dominated flick worthwhile and the resulting collision is a brutal
ammunition-filled brawl of a movie. Brooklyn’s Finest will meet every-bit of your need for targeted
violence and spilling sexuality; especially from newcomer Shannon Kane who
spends most of the film in her birthday suite. But the title is a double
entendre for the NYPD and may confuse those that associate it with a rap song
by Jay-Z and The Notorious B.I.G. Set in BK, Brooklyn’s Finest is exceptionally produced and evokes greatly a drug-infested
environment of East Brooklyn, including community outrage and exploding hostility.
