‘Brooklyn’s Finest’: A great tourism ad for the BK

The movie: Brooklyn’s Finest

Directed by: Antoine Fuqua

Written by: Michael C. Martin

Famous people you should recognize in the movie: Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Vincent D’Onofrio, Lili Taylor, Ellen Barkin, Brian O’Byrne

What I wore to the screening: Theory pants, vintage pink shirt, blue and purple Revl tie, purple Club Monaco V neck sweater, YSL sock boots, Chinook coat, Fred Perry paper boy cap (which I almost lost after the credits rolled)

First thing I thought when I saw Vincent D’Onofrio: THOR! ALMIGHTY GOD OF THUNDER!

First think I thought when I saw Lili Taylor: She played the nymphomaniac girlfriend of D’Onofrio in Mystic Pizza!

Usual suspects: Fuqua continues his cinematic quest of police force corruption and moral decisions with a triad of cop-centric storylines. Gere is Eddie, a booze-ridden and suicidal cop on the verge of retirement; Cheadle is Tango, an undercover cop who becomes BFFs with a drug dealer (Wesley Snipes); and Hawke rounds out the bunch as Sal, a man who is on the verge of swiping drug money to save his wife and family.

Brooklyn is a great place to raise a family: Personally, I like Brooklyn. I have no idea where they filmed this movie in the NY burrough and I don’t know if I even ever want to go. With signature grit, grime and bloody gunshots, Fuqua conducts another opus that illustrates that not all is good in the hood. People get kidnapped, cops get compromised, racial slurs split friendships, policemen get shot, criminals get shot, blood splatters, drugs get dealt, Wesley Snipes resuscitates his career – all that doesn’t bode well for the tourism board of Brooklyn.

Been there, done that? I don’t want to not say “This movie is like Training Day”. I didn’t think the chaos could get any worse, but with this movie it seemed like it did. That said, it’s kind of like Training Day.

Bitching is worse than Barkin: In the screen time that Ellen Barkin has on screen as Tango’s superior Agent Smith, you snarl at your self-absorbed brashness and want to slap the ho.

Pretty Woman the X-rated sequel: Gere’s character, Eddie finds comfort in the prostitute Chantel (Shannon Kane). Was that oral sex scene a wink-wink, nudge-nudge to one of the greatest romantic comedies off all time? I think so!

Overall critique: You wouldn’t expect anything less from Fuqua and his band of disgruntled cops, but you want more. Grade: B-