For Moving Pictures, I reviewed the crime film Brooklyn’s Finest.
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| In “Brooklyn’s Finest,” director Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day,” “The Shooter”) treads well-trodden turf as he chronicles the disparate lives of three New York City police officers over one eventful week. Seven days from retirement, veteran beat cop Eddie Dugan (Richard Gere) unwillingly trains rookie cops. Clarence "Tango" Butler (Don Cheadle), deep undercover in one of Brooklyn’s most powerful drug gangs, attempts to maintain his guise. Vice cop Salvatore "Sal" Procida (Ethan Hawke) struggles to keep his financially strapped family afloat. All three storylines eventually converge in a sequence of desperate acts. |
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| In perhaps the least engaging of the three tales, the grey-headed Dugan typifies the pathetic, don’t-rock-the-boat retiring cop depicted in countless police dramas. He fights with fellow officers, refuses to help those in need, drinks a lot, and finds solace with a prostitute (at times a twisted version of “Pretty Woman”). |
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| Screenwriter Michael C. Martin adds nothing new to the idea of an undercover cop sympathizing with the criminals but, thanks to Cheadle, the excellent Wesley Snipes and “The Wire” veteran Michael Kenneth Williams, the tale acquires some novel virtue. |
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| Quality acting again propels “Brooklyn’s Finest” beyond its conventional roots as Hawke and the always exceptional Lili Taylor bring depth to the tormented Sal and his pregnant wife Angela. |
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| Overcoming his own flaws and those of the screenplay, however, Fuqua creates a tension-filled, often surprising 140 minutes. Though abundant, the violence and blood-letting are used to good dramatic effect. |
Check out the entire review at Moving Pictures.