94. Brooklyn's Finest
Brooklyn's Finest is the latest from Training Day director, Antoine Fuqua. It tells the story of 3 NYC police officers. One is trying to do right for his family, even if it means crossing the line. Another is deep undercover, infiltrating a drug gang. And the other has had an unspectacular career on the force and is set to retire in 7 days.
When I first saw the trailers for this, I really wanted to see it. It's been out in theaters for a couple of weeks now but haven't had the opportunity to go see it. Luckily for me, a screener hit the net and hooked me up big time. I'm extremely glad it did. Worked out pretty well for me.
I liked this movie a lot. The plot isn't anything that hasn't been done before but the cast makes it work. Ethan Hawke is the officer on the verge of going bad. He has quite a few kids with a set of twins on the way. They're all crammed into a fairly small home, with the pregnant wife showing signs of mold poisoning due to mold in the walls of the home. Don Cheadle is the undercover officer who just wants his life back. Problem is, he's been under so long that his wife is divorcing him and he's starting to forget who he was and where his allegiances lie. And Richard Gere is the cop with a week left. He's had a long but undecorated career and just wants to make it through his final week. These performances are all excellent. Plus Wesley Snipes makes a return to the big screen here, after a few years in DTV purgatory. He's solid as the kingpin of the drug gang. The movie is a bit over two hours but it never really feels long. It moves along at a nice pace, building interest as it goes along.
The other thing I liked a lot that some folks might have missed was the soundtrack. One of Cheadle's first scenes has him in a restaurant. The song in the background is "The Great Pretender'. Pretty suitable given his role. And later in the movie, a character is looking for money while a Busta Rhymes song about trying to find money is playing. These were just nice touches that I liked quite a bit.
Overall, Brooklyn's Finest is a really good movie and I recommend it.
2 comments:
I've heard people say that this movie is like a sequel to "Training Day." Not officially, but if Ethan Hawke's character from that movie got burnt out, he'd be the character he plays in this movie. Now I LOVELOVELOVE "Training Day," so this intrigues me, plus the trailers for this movie look really good, and I like all the main actors. I'll be seeing this.
I can see the similarities in Hawke's characters in both movies. Definitely.
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