Monday, June 10, 2013

Brooklyn's Finest (2009)

Director: Antoine Fuqua

Starring: Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Will patton, Lili Taylor, Michael Kenneth Williams, Brian F. O'Byrne, Shannon Kane, Ellen Barkin, Vincent D'Onofrio

More info: IMDb

Tagline: This is War. This is Brooklyn.

Plot: In Brooklyn, amid drug deals, violence, casual racism, poverty, housing projects, and corrupt cops, we follow three officers: Tango, African-American, working undercover, believing he's earned a promotion to a desk job but told he has to set up the bust of an ex-con who saved his life; Sal, who'll commit murder to get cash to buy a house big enough for his family; and, Eddie, the precinct's oldest beat cop, a week to go before retirement, assigned to mentor an earnest rookie.


My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

I've seen this twice now and it's pretty damn good, especially since the three main characters are cliches we've all seen dozens of times.  The difference is Fuqua's direction and the actors that play them.  Don Cheadle is fantastic in everything he does.  He's one of the best actors out there.  Ethan Hawke is intense and deadly serious as always.  Richard Gere, though, is the big surprise.  He played his character with such worn out, tired and lifeless emotion, that when he decides to do something at the end of the picture it's surprising without being unwarranted.  Fuqua is the real star of this picture I think.  He's able to maintain tension building for more than two hours and it's interesting all the way to an unusually satisfying conclusion.

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