The Review: Brooklyn's Finest (old review)

I say damn! Finally got around to seeing Brooklyn's Finest and may I say this is one of the best movies I have ever seen? Yeah, I’m gonna get that out of the way right now. I marked hard for this movie. Let me tell you why.

It wasn’t the fact that it was not a CGI fest. It was not the fact that it was directed by Antoine Fuqua the same guy that directed one of my other favorite films Training Day. It was not the fact that Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke, Don Cheadle, Lili Tyler, Wesley Snipes, and Michael K. Williams are in it. It’s the fact that they took a lot of stars and gave them all great parts.

Now, I know that sounds rather goofy. But don’t forget we love in a world where films like Valentine’s Day has an assload of stars in it but manages to stink. This shit right here? This shit right here?! This was an amazing film. Now let me get off my knees, wipe my lips, and take my whores bath and explain what Brooklyn’s Finest is about.

Ethan Hawke is a cop with a drug gang unit that has a house full of mouths to feed with more on the way via his pregnant wife played by Lili Taylor. He is in many situations where taking the money would be as easy as putting it in your pocket and walking away. He wants a new home for hi family and knows that the pay he gets as a cop is not nearly enough. Crisis of faith plus easy money plus pregnant wife equals a tough decision.

Richard Gere is a cop with one week to go before retiring after 22 years on the force. He is the definition of “done the party.” He just does not care anymore. Sees a woman being attacked? Whatever. Fights in stores. Who cares? He wakes up every morning to a shot of whiskey and a gun in his mouth. He is asked to train rookies he doesn’t even want to see. He doesn’t even attempt to hide the fact that he doesn’t give a damn. When faced with stopping real crime and waiting to get that fat pension check decisions can be hard.

Don Cheadle plays a cop that is so deep undercover he needs a fucking flash light and a shovel to get out. He has sacrificed everything to get where he is and wants more. But as with most things in life you are always being told “But if you do this one last thing for me…” He lives a life where he is forced to hang with killers, drug dealers, and murderers all the while asking himself “When will it be me found dead?” Assigned to help a bad man played by Wesley Snipes in his best role since New Jack City, Cheadle is forced to choose between a future he asked for and a life he may not want anymore.

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