"Checkdown" is overheard lingo from American football: a play called at the line-of-scrimmage. Thus, a checkdown review is relatively quick and rough, an attempted end-around perfectionism.
A tragedy of Hollywood is that the established filmmaker may be subjected to more pressure than the first-time director. It can ruin an otherwise well-made film, like this one by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Olympus Has Fallen). That it fools some (6.7 IMDb) doesn't make it less ridiculous.
Brooklyn's Finest is about men, as portrayed by stars, those being Wesley Snipes, Ethan Hawke, Don Cheadle, Richard Gere, even Will Patton. Over the course of the film, the characters plan, allude to and are accused of transgressions, but we hardly see them do bad. Repeatedly, the movie stops short: Hollywood stars are notorious for demanding likable, admirable characters.
And so Snipes is a compelling drug kingpin, for whom an undercover Cheadle nobly bleeds, while Hawke's up-against-it cop can't quite grab the loot once he has the chance, and consequently winds up shot. Hawke's edgy NYC detective also won't allow ethnic jokes at his poker game. As for Richard Gere's character, he seems well-preserved and virile, for a disgraced alcoholic. He remains a cop for the pension, but redeems himself saving abused women.
Apparently, writer Michael C. Martin and Fuqua couldn't fit a scene with a cat up a tree.
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| Cheadle and Snipes posture in Brooklyn's Finest |
Brooklyn's Finest is about men, as portrayed by stars, those being Wesley Snipes, Ethan Hawke, Don Cheadle, Richard Gere, even Will Patton. Over the course of the film, the characters plan, allude to and are accused of transgressions, but we hardly see them do bad. Repeatedly, the movie stops short: Hollywood stars are notorious for demanding likable, admirable characters.
And so Snipes is a compelling drug kingpin, for whom an undercover Cheadle nobly bleeds, while Hawke's up-against-it cop can't quite grab the loot once he has the chance, and consequently winds up shot. Hawke's edgy NYC detective also won't allow ethnic jokes at his poker game. As for Richard Gere's character, he seems well-preserved and virile, for a disgraced alcoholic. He remains a cop for the pension, but redeems himself saving abused women.
Apparently, writer Michael C. Martin and Fuqua couldn't fit a scene with a cat up a tree.
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