Word: fuqua
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Don’t go into “Brooklyn’s Finest” expecting a particularly innovative or intriguing crime film—it is certainly no “French Connection.” Director Antione Fuqua doesn’t retread his 2001 police drama “Training Day,” though if he had, “Brooklyn’s Finest” would have been much more satisfying. While boasting an all-star lineup, including Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, and Wesely Snipes, the film remains a pedestrian melodrama...
...most puzzling aspects of the film is the fact that Fuqua never makes effective use of the film’s actual New York location, excluding several overhead shots of the projects. In fact, the only neighborhood in Brooklyn mentioned in the entire film is Bedford-Stuyvesant, and that is only in passing. On top of using essentially stock characters in the script, Fuqua does nothing to give the film any legitimate New York feel...
...Fuqua directed Denzel Washington to an Oscar and Hawke to a nomination in Training Day, and this movie feels very much like a return to that material, but with add-ons, specifically a third male lead. Actually, a fourth if you count Wesley Snipes, who has a smaller but pivotal part as a lusciously smooth drug dealer named Cassanova. With all these balls in the air, the viewer gets impatient for them to come together. The aim is clearly epic - this film aspires to be Serpico, New Jack City and Training Day all rolled into one - but by the time...
These slow-turning narrative gears gives you time to notice Fuqua's lack of subtlety - as the camera panned over a stack of money for what had to be the fifth time, the preview audience I was with tittered - and his love of blood. It's not enough to be gunned down in this movie; you must cough up blood as you die, a gently burbling cascade that connects with whatever goop you've got coming out of your head. By the time the last corpse slumped to the ground it started to seem almost rhythmic: Bang bang, burble burble...
...Ellen Barkin, who plays the sadistic top brass in the police department. She is always fully clothed, which may explain why Tango calls her "Dude." She's wretched and he gets a laugh, but it's worth noting that only sainted wives and the topless rate as women in Fuqua world...