Brooklyn's Finest, Three Movies You've Seen Wrapped Into One

Details

Brooklyn's Finest
Directed by Antoine Fuqua
Overture Films
Opens March 5

Related Content

• Zaire Paige Not Only Played a Movie Killer, He Became One in Real Life.
  January 26, 2011
• Dog Deathly Afraid of Julia Roberts
  October 5, 2011
• The Best Male Hustlers In Movies: A Montage
  September 6, 2011
• Well Worth the Trip: Trek to Keep Tibetan Culture Alive in Journey from Zanskar
  September 21, 2011
• This Week in the Voice: Zaire Paige Shoots to Kill
  January 26, 2011

More About

• Antoine Fuqua
• Ethan Hawke
• Brooklyn's Finest
• Crime Movies
• Movie Stars

Filled with every cop-movie convention since the invention of gunpowder and curse words, Brooklyn's Finest is three movies in one, all of which you've seen before: the sad tale of the sullen burnout (Richard Gere as Eddie) a week away from retirement who finds accidental redemption; the tortured tale of the undercover brother named Tango (Don Cheadle) asked to do One Last Big, Bad Thing before he's kicked upstairs and out of the down-low life; and the tragic tale of the good-ish cop gone bad (Ethan Hawke as Sal), saddled with a mess o' kids and seeing nothing wrong with pilfering drug dough to finance a new life for his pregnant-again wife. Seen it. Seen it. And seen it. Disappointing, since Brooklyn's Finest is from Antoine Fuqua, who directed Denzel right into an Oscar for Training Day. The script is by a first-timer named Michael C. Martin, who wrote a movie that sounds like every other movie. Which would be forgivable if Fuqua had tweaked it enough to at least acknowledge its antecedents—to at least wink—or had turned this sleepy sucker up to 11. Also: Hawke, who spends a lot of time glowering and sulking, usually while smoking, is, easily, the least Sal-looking character in the history of the movies.