Brooklyn’s Finest
Posted on July 6, 2010 at 8:00 am
This bloated, pretentious mess is the slowest action movie I can remember, weighted down with over-used characters, situations, and dialog. The dialog is over-used within the movie itself. It isn’t enough for a character to say, “I want my life back!” He has to repeat for emphasis, “I want my life back!” only to evoke the response, “You want your life back!” “Brooklyn’s Finest” is movie-dom’s mediocre.
Make a list of every police movie cliche and you will find them all here. The disillusioned uniformed officer a week from retirement. The dedicated cop who has been undercover for so long his loyalties are getting blurred. The detective whose money pressures overwhelm his integrity. The cop who falls for a hooker. The rookie who find that real life is more complicated — and dangerous — than the academy. The kid who gets shot and turns out to be an honor student. The charismatic drug dealer. The higher-ups who engage in cover-ups. The ambitious and ruthless politician. The even-more ambitious and ruthless crime boss. And not one single moment with any freshness or sincerity or interest.
Director Antoine Fuqua returns to the genre of his greatest success, “Training Day,” after a series of disappointing follow-ups like “King Arthur” and “Shooter.” But without Denzel Washington’s galvanizing performance in a larger-than-life role, the material feels at the same time thin and heavy-handed. It isn’t enough that the cop’s wife is pregnant. She has to be pregnant with twins and getting sick from the mold in their old, over-crowded house. Another cop has to literally wash literal blood off his hands. The cops and the bad guys both communicate primarily by grunts, insults, profanity, and meaningful stares. “There’s no such thing as right or wrong,” says a character at the beginning of the film, “Only righter and wronger.” Well, if there’s such a thing as gooder and badder, this movie falls into the second category.
How is this movie pretentious? I hate to break it to you this is the real world. If you have never worked in law enforcement, then you can’t say what is real and what not is real. This is how the street works. I’m sorry you have been living in a bubble for a good part of your life. From a law enforcement perspective, this movie has credibility to it. The violence, sex, drugs and language. Yeah, that’s the street. Too bad you don’t know about it. Most likely,
you wake up, kiss the wife and kids bye bye and drive to work in your office. You have no idea about what goes on outside of your doors.
Then you leave works go home have dinner watch TV and that’s all you know. All you know is what’s in the newspaper, TV and radio.
As a law enforcement officer, I give this movie a five out of five.
I’m surprised Richard Gere lasted 22 years. Most officers only last
five to 10 years in a major metropolitan Police department.
All of that ripping and running around, most officers burn out a hella of a lot faster than 22 years. Remember, it’s a marathon not a sprint. That was what he Gere was telling his first rookie. You have
25 years of days. Pace yourself.
Chris, I appreciate your comment very much, and I appreciate your service and dedication even more. I am always glad when someone sees more in a movie than I do and appreciate your perspective. But I am surprised to find a law enforcement officer lacking in both courtesy and observation. I don’t kiss the wife and kids goodbye — as you can see from my picture, my name, and the fact I am the Movie Mom, I am the wife and mother in our house. And I am also a lawyer who has worked for both the state’s attorney and U.S. Attorney in the prosecution of criminal defendants and the briefs in appeals of their convictions. So, my review was based in part on my experience as well as my judgment as a critic. But if it felt authentic to you, I respect that. And I know your comment will be of great value in helping the visitors to this site evaluate the movie, so I thank you and want you to know that while we do prohibit insults, we welcome your comments at a any time.