Brooklyn's Finest
Starring: Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes
Director: Antoine Faqua
Rating: 2/5
It was the gritty cop drama that really announced Antoine Faqua as a filmmaker to watch back in 2001 when Training Day hit the big screen.
And that is the genre that he returns to with his latest project Brooklyn's Finest, which shot in The Projects of New York City.
In the course of one chaotic week, the lives of three conflicted New York City police officers are dramatically transformed by their involvement in a massive drug operation in Brooklyn’s Finest, a...
In the course of one chaotic week, the lives of three conflicted New York City police officers are dramatically transformed by their involvement in a massive drug operation in Brooklyn’s Finest, a searing new crime drama from acclaimed director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day).
Burned out veteran Eddie Dugan (Golden Globe®-winner Richard Gere) is just one week away from his pension and a fishing cabin in Connecticut.
Narcotics officer Sal Procida (Oscar® nominee Ethan Hawke) has discovered there’s no line he won’t cross to provide a better life for his long-suffering wife and seven children.
And Clarence 'Tango' Butler (Oscar® nominee Don Cheadle) has been undercover so long his loyalties have started to shift from his fellow police officers to his prison buddy Caz (Wesley Snipes), one of Brooklyn’s most infamous drug dealers.
With personal and work pressures bearing down on them, each man faces daily tests of judgment and honour in one of the world’s most difficult jobs.
Faqua has brought together a great cast that includes Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke and Richard Gere in the three central roles, all of whom give a great performance.
Gere just wants to make it through the day, Cheadle is struggling with his undercover and work and Hawke, who is especially good, is just trying to protect his family.
Faqua does a good job in weaving the three storylines together but we really have seen this all before and it does become a little cliched, and at times boring.
The real problem is you don't feel any emotional link to the character the script, which has major peaks and troughs, keeps them at arms length that we never end up engaged in their plight.
The script is very medicore that lacks originality and pace, Jesus it drags in places, and you find yourself sat there thinking 'I really have seen it all before.'
The movie looks great Faqua took his cast and crew into the heart of the Projects in New City and that really does shine through as it looks authentic and takes us into a world that we don't often get to see.
It's a movie that doesn't deliver in the style that we would expect from the director who brought us Training Day, since that success he really has gone off the boil, but it's a solid outing for everyone involved.
But when you think of the acting talent that is on that screen you are left thinking about what the movie could have been like if they had looked to tell a more engaging and original story.
By all means it's a movie that you can sit back and enjoy for a couple of hours but it's by no means a classic and falls way short of Faqua's best.
Brooklyn's Finest is out now
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw