|
Undercover cop Tango (Don Cheadle), right, helps an ex-con boss (Wesley Snipes) return to society in “Brooklyn’s Finest.” |
“These streets,” an undercover cop named Tango tells an ex-con kingpin, “have an expiration date!”
What? Did he really say that?
The streets have an expiration date?
This might be a cute way for a screenwriter to suggest that thugs can’t survive on the mean streets of New York forever, but seasoned big-city cops just don’t talk like this.
Ever.
Although earnestly acted by a talented cast, “Brooklyn’s Finest” packs enough Hollywood hokum to take the edge off its lethal bursts of violence and visceral street cred.
The crime drama is another one of those seriously bleak, pessimistic cop tales where the boys in blue surrender to corruption and give up fighting the good fight, either because it’s much easier or they simply can’t envision a better way to handle their lives as peace officers.
“Brooklyn’s Finest” – a deliberately factitious title – follows three New York cops who apparently have no connection to each other.
Not at first. But as you might expect, their paths eventually cross in a series of unexpected, exceedingly violent encounters capped by one of the wimpiest, least satisfying finales in the genre’s history. (Read more…)