Brooklyn's Finest

I liked this movie. It was interesting throughout, it pulled me into the lives of its characters and their moral dilemmas, it featured a number of tense suspense-laden scenes in which people get plugged with bullets, and I’m a fan of all 4 of its lead actors, so for me, the movie was a slam-dunk. So why am I only giving it a 7/10, you may ask? Well, as much as the film did entertain me, it also felt very déjà-vu in a lot of spots. Maybe not the entire story or the characters’ different scenarios, but you get the older cop who’s seven days away from retirement (really, B?), the young rookie cop who’s got a huge boner about being a cop, the dirty cop whose having money issues relating to his growing family and finally, the undercover cop who seems to have integrated himself a little too deeply into his job. If you look at those descriptions at face value, you can name several movies in which cops behave in similar ways, including Antoine Fuqua’s own TRAINING DAY, as well as other cop flicks like DARK BLUE, S.W.A.T. and HARSH TIMES. So is the movie original? Not at all. If you’re whole shtick with movies is that you’re looking for something new or creative or original, this ain’t it…guaranteed! I personally enjoy originality in my movies, so as much as I can say that BROOKLYN’S FINEST is a solid “dirty cop movie” that delivers on many fronts – including the personal side of these cops, the friendships, the pressure they put themselves under – I can’t fully commit to recommending it across-the-board because of its unoriginality (and frankly, I’m kinda disappointed in director Antoine Fuqua for barking up this same tree).

All that said, I was happy to see Wesley Snipes in full NEW JACK CITY mode, looking slick and kickin’ up all kinds of attitude as the badass on the streets. Cheadle did “ayight”, but I was expecting a little more from him, to be honest with you. His character had a ton of strain placed upon him throughout the movie, but I didn’t fully connect with him. Ethan Hawke, on the other hand, played his high-pressure cop to perfection, giving us a real insight into what tough jobs these men have, day-to-day. And finally, Richard Gere. One of the issues I also had with the film early on, is that there were just too many characters and it was taking too much time, and nearing the end of the movie, I just couldn’t help but think how Gere’s character could easily have been excised from the film, without it missing much of a beat (woulda cut down on the film 125-minute runtime as well). Buuuuuuut then, Gere’s character comes through in the finale, so I was kinda glad he was there after all. So overall, I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone who loves good cop movies and who isn’t bothered by some of the redundancies from other such films. It features a handful of interesting and credible characters, living through the tough streets of Brooklyn, while offering us some real behind-the-scenes on the shitty things that happen within those drug-dealing apartments. I was also quite surprised with some of the things that its lead characters had to go through in the movie (particularly during its denouement), but that’s part of the enjoyment of watching movies, of course. Thumbs up…but with an asterix* (if you’re looking for originality, don’t knock on this door).