All-star cast saves ‘Brooklyn’s Finest’

It's easy to feel sorry for "Training Day" director Antoine Fuqua's latest film, "Brooklyn's Finest."

The movie has received negative critical responses and opened the same weekend as "Alice in Wonderland."

While it certainly wasn't the most original police drama in recent memory, "Brooklyn's Finest" still managed to work, thanks to Fuqua's gritty style and an all-star cast that worked wonders with such cliched material.

The story features three subplots about New York City police officers taking place over the course of one week, which eventually link together.

Richard Gere stars as Eddie, an officer a week away from retiring, which provides a great example of how derivative the script is right of the bat.

However, Gere pulls out a great performance as Eddie, who has become so disenfranchised by patrolling the mean streets of New York City that his impending retirement is bringing out suicidal thoughts.

These troubling thoughts are worsened once he is forced to start training rookie cops in the roughest areas during his last few days.

At the same time, an undercover officer named Tango (Don Cheadle) is also having problems.

Tango only took his assignment in the streets to help his chances of getting a promotion, but it seems like that goal will never be met.

Things get very complicated once he finds out that the drug kingpin (Wesley Snipes) he is set to target is also a close friend he doesn't want to betray.

Rounding out the film is Ethan Hawke's character Sal, a narcotics officer whose wife is expecting twins.

He already has two other children, plus his wife (Lili Taylor) has asthma complications from the mold in their home, which is putting him under pressure to buy a new house.

With Sal's paltry cop salary, he can't begin to imagine how he can afford to give his family all they need, so he begins to consider taking his own share of the narcotics money he brings to the NYPD every day.

While it's interesting seeing theses tales unravel, there is no doubt audiences have seen all this material before. It was probably written better the first time.

That doesn't mean "Brooklyn's Finest" is a waste of time. It's more enjoyable than recent cop dramas like "Pride and Glory."

Fuqua does a great job of keeping the movie at an enjoyable pace, and the film has a handheld look that makes the audience feel like they're really in the action.

The cast also does a great job, with Gere putting in a fantastic performance.

It's difficult to remember the last time the words "Richard Gere" and "fantastic performance" were in the same sentence, so "Brooklyn's Finest" at least gets high marks for that.

Gere isn't the only stand-out with Cheadle, Hawke and Snipes all providing strong performances.

Another cast member to note is Vincent D'Onofrio, who shows up in a small but memorable role toward the beginning of the film.

While it has some things going against it, "Brooklyn's Finest" still manages to come out on top thanks to good performances from the cast and crew. It doesn't come highly recommended, but it's still not bad.

Grade: B