Movie Review Rewind: Brooklyn’s Finest (2010)

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Training Day was a rough look at cops, drugs and corruption. Antoine Fuqua directed Training Day and this film as well. Fuqua travels down the same road in Brooklyn’s Finest. A film that is tough and grim and focuses on New York cops and the mean streets of Brooklyn. This film has great performances from everyone involved and it takes you to a dark place. A place that we do not see every day and it can be frightening for sure.

Eddie Dugan (Richard Gere) has a week until he retires and gets out of New York for good. He is burned out and not well-liked by his peers. But Eddie does not care and just wants the week to pass him by. He does not want to make a difference or even attempt to. This is a different role for Gere. He is not the hero we are used to seeing. His wife has left him and he wakes up every morning with scotch close by. And suicide is on his mind most days which explains why when he wakes up he puts a gun in his mouth.

Gere’s character has substance, but nothing as complex compared to the other guys. Eddie just wants out. Plain and simple. And Gere has the physical and emotional strength to go to that dark place and really be depressing. The only person in his life is a prostitute. So we can all guess that he has no one in his life. This film is Gere’s latest risk as far as roles go and I would say Chicago was the one before this.

Ethan Hawke plays Narc officer Sal Procida and he brings the intensity. His character has a lot of problems that mostly involve his family. He has seven kids and his wife is pregnant with twins. Their house is too small and the mold in it may affect their unborn children. So he has a new house waiting for him, but does not have all of the money to get it. Sal feels like he has nowhere to turn and in his line of work he comes across a lot of money.

Hawke really gets the opportunity to play a troubled character. A man who is willing to do anything in order to protect his family. He does not care what lines he may cross. Sal is a man who feels like he has no choice in the matter. Not anymore. Hawke reveals his anger, desperation, and frustration so well on-screen. Even when you know what he is doing is wrong, you hope he can get away with it.

Then there is Tango (Don Cheadle), who has been undercover for so long that he forgot what side he was on. He wants out because the job has taken the life he had away from him. At the same time, he has become friends with the guys he is suppose to be bringing down. This includes Caz (Wesley Snipes) who has saved Tango’s life before but who is also a big-time drug dealer. Cheadle and Snipes have good scenes together. These men come from different lifestyles, but they know the streets and how they could get turned on at any moment.

It is nice to see Snipes in a mainstream film like this and he does a nice job. His role is a supporting one, but he is the only one who represents the streets of Brooklyn. The main three guys represent the law. And the law is crooked and corrupt. As far as Cheadle goes, he is always good in any role. The role of Tango is a difficult one because he is a part of the streets but has to hide who he really is. Cheadle was able to become a man who wants a normal life but is stuck in between both worlds. He perhaps may have the most dangerous job of all three guys. At least everyone knows the other two are cops.

Brooklyn’s Finest tears a part New York City. And the jobs of the three main cops are tearing their lives a part. This film has themes of corruption, crime, and drugs. It involves language, hookers, blood, and nudity. There is never really a happy note in this film at all. There is a glimpse of hope at the end, but when all of these different storylines about these three different cops clash together, all hell breaks loose and decisions come back to haunt them.

Overall, the film has a talented cast with different, complex roles and their stories have meaning. This film is no Training Day and perhaps that is no one’s fault. Maybe Fuqua just set the bar too high for himself. The two films do have a lot in common and Fuqua knows what story he wants to tell and what he wants to expose to the audience. Even if it is stuff he has already shown us before.

“Nature Boy” Brandon Vick is the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and star of Brandon’s Box Office In Your Mouth. Follow him on Twitter@SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.

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