The Movie Press
  • Movie Reviews
  • Twitter News/Updates
  • News & Notes
  • DVD
  • Box Office Results
  • Contact
  • About Us

Brooklyn's...eh...so so

3/4/2010

0 Comments

 
Picture
It’s nearly impossible to go into a movie without preconceived notions these days. Not only does Hollywood love to rest on its laurels, it is also the only business that goes out of its way to point it out to you. Taglines such as ‘from the visionary director who brought you Training Day’ is basically like saying ‘this guy made a movie you really liked 9 years ago, and even though he has made six more that were so mediocre we’re not going to mention them here, this one is going to be his best work yet!’ Sorry, but that isn’t going to convince me to see a movie, it actually makes me nervous that the movie itself is so bad that you have to promote the director’s previous work over the actual movie itself.

Add in the reports that Brooklyn’s Finest is one of those films with a bunch of well-known actors came together and took a pay cut because they liked the script so much and wanted to work together, and you’ve got a recipe for a turd sandwich.


Read more AFTER the jump!

But you know what? It was actually pretty good. This could just mean that the ‘Don Cheadle Proxy’ (every movie he appears in, if only for several seconds, is irrevocably good by sheer proximity) is stronger than the ‘Resting Laurels Corollary’ (defined in the previous paragraph), but regardless Brooklyn’s Finest was a not-too-predictable cop drama with enough excitement to keep you interested and enough suspended reality that I got nervous when bad things happened to the main characters. It’s not the type of movie that’s going to inspire a new tagline for director Antoine Fuqua’s next movie, but it’s certainly worth seeing.

Officer Eddie Dugan (Richard Gere) is a cop counting down the days until his he retires so he can get his pension, Detective Clarence “Tango” Butler (Don Cheadle) is an undercover agent struggling to keep
up the ruse, and Detective Slavatore “Sal” Procida (Ethan Hawke) is a policeman who will do anything to provide for his family. When all of these characters get tied up in a drug deal involving a large sum of
money you’ve got the story for every modern cop drama ever...

Say what you will about Fuqua’s films, but the American-born director is good at making sometimes slow developing stories interesting and good-looking with long, crisp, sprawling shots. He frames his characters well and doesn’t make his actors work, which is bad when you have a film with so many well-known actors because it makes it hard for any individual to have a real breakout performance. With Brooklyn’s Finest, though, it works. Having so many stars covers up Wesley Snipes’ utterly horrific performance (seriously, he is just playing a caricature of his own self), and it also allows Cheadle and Hawke to let their subtle brilliance simmer on the story’s backburner.

Brooklyn’s Finest didn’t reinvent the wheel; it’s a cop drama at its heart and no amount of drug slanging or gun wielding will change that, but it does succeed in making its characters something the audience will care about. Because of that, you will care whether or not you saw this movie. 


--Mark Collins
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    October 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    July 2018
    June 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009
    December 2008
    November 2008
    October 2008
    September 2008
    August 2008

    Categories

    All
    Austin Film Festival
    Darcie Duttweiler Reviews
    Derrick Mitcham Reviews
    Eric Harrelson Reviews
    Eric Pulsifer Reviews
    Eric Pulsifer Reviews
    Fantastic Fest
    Greg Maclennan Reviews
    Greg Wilson Reviews
    Jessica Hixson Reviews
    Mark Collins Reviews
    Monte Monreal Reviews
    Reviews
    Rob Heidrick Reviews
    Rob Heidrick Reviews
    Sxsw

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.