Brooklyn’s Finest is the latest film from director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Shooter) about a group of NYC cops whom all work in the same department and yet all seem to live in completely different worlds due to the places they are in their job and in their lives. With an acclaimed director and a great cast that includes Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke, Don Cheadle, Ellen Barkin, and Wesley Snipes (In his first theatrical role since Blade Trinity) , I was expecting a film that would be compelling or at the very least, entertaining. This film is neither .
First off you have Sal (Ethan Hawke) , one of the officers who goes on raids in order to fill his pocket with drug money. The thing is, he is not really a bad guy. He wants to use the money to buy his family a new home because his wife is getting sick from the mold in the house he lives in while she is pregnant with twins. Hawke is fine in the role, even though he is playing a cop again like in Training Day, he is playing a completely different type of cop.
Next we have Eddie (Richard Gere) who is 7 days away from retirement and just wants to coast through those final days without putting forth any effort at all aside from pouring himself a drink or 2, or 7. Yes, he is an alcoholic. He is forced to take on a rookie partner for his final week to show the kid the ropes. I personally have never been a fan of Richard Gere and this movie does not change my opinion at all. I find that Eddies story here is very limp and just tries to serve a purpose of having an older cop who has does this job for 22 years. But you never get any idea of what Eddie has been through in his time on the force.
Our final story is actually the most interesting. We have Tango (Don Cheadle) who plays an undercover cop who is at his limits and wants to be pulled out of undercover work because he feels he is losing his life and his sole.He feels like he is becoming like the thugs he is trying to bring down. When he is asked to help set up Caz (Wesley Snipes) a man that saved Tango’s life in the past, but also a known and convicted drug dealer. So there is a bit of conflict in this situation. One thing I did like was that Snipes character Caz was someone who really did want to change his life and did not want to keep living a life of crime. It’s funny now that I think about it. The convicted criminal was the most honest character in a film about cops.
Aside from a few good dramatic moments and some funny moments involving Eddie and a prostitute, this movie is really not worth the ticket price. I can’t even really recommend it as a Netflix rental either.
By Marc Ferman
By Marc Ferman
