Brooklyn’s Finest (2009, 132 min)  Gere, Cheadle, Hawke

Antoine Fuqua directs such a long and dark drama, that I actually had to ask if this was a Scorsese flick. The movie follows 3 separate yet intertwining police stories in Brooklyn. Richard Gere is the elder flawed cop who is retiring in a week, Cheadle is the undercover cop who has had enough and wants to get his life back, and Hawke is the flawed narcotic officer who has dug himself such a hole in life, both with large family and crooked tendencies, that the line between right and wrong is so blurred we don’t really ever know weather to root for him or against him.  The thing about movies with detailed inter-winding stories like this is that they get you sucked in when we get invested in the characters and we really don’t ever want it to end, or when it does it’s hard to believe 2 hours plus has passed. Here, the base stories are there, but it just never gets over the top. We never REALLY care or want to care what happens to some characters. The movie goes a bit too long that by the end we just want closure so we can stop watching and move on. There is a point about the 90 min or so mark where the stories go from entertaining to drawn out. 

One thing I did loved was the film studies geek inside me (from 10th grade I think it was), loved the many film techniques involved. From the many foreshadowing to certain placement of shots. Granted every good writer and directer throws in many of these, and they are not hard to spot, but I just appreciated it a bit more in this movie.  A heads up to straight liners and parents. This movie has quite a bit of drug use and prostitution/nudity involved, so if that sort of thing bothers you then be wary.

Verdict: It’s def worth the Red Box rental. However, b/c of it’s shortcomings I would put it on the 2nd tier of selections. Kinda when all the new ones are out and you have seen most everything else. Right before you have to schlep to the horror flicks, and make sure you have the 2 & 1/2 hours to kill.

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