Brooklyn's Finest 2010

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: You can see why the actors were drawn to this -- good characters, nice monologues, a few explosive scenes. But in keeping all of them happy and still making room for his own excesses, Fuqua loses any sense of pacing. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: It's a movie you truly want to like, because it reminds you of movies you did, most of them made by Sidney Lumet. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: The bravest ones let us in on certain truths about the profession even when they're unpleasant, and Brooklyn's Finest can stand proudly among them. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Whatever one may think of the overall style -- I think it's ludicrous -- Mr. Fuqua clearly wanted his film to be operatic, and so it is, in a tone-deaf way. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: Ultimately, Brooklyn's Finest is engrossing in the same way a halfway decent, made-for-television movie is. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: Other than a few dashes of humor managed by Hawke, the movie is relentlessly bleak and barbarous, Fuqua grinding viewers down through his cavemen-with-badges depiction of police work. Read more

Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: Any movie that ends on a freeze frame of Richard Gere walking stoically away from a crime scene teeming with police car lights can't be all good. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: From the moment Gere is introduced waking up to whiskey for breakfast, Brooklyn's Finest segues smoothly and slickly from one cliche to another. Read more

Kerry Lengel, Arizona Republic: Fuqua tries to create the illusion of meaning by copycatting the style and techniques of better directors, but he can't save the naked emperor of the script. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Brooklyn's Finest is a billy-club sandwich: three separate cop dramas piled one on top of the other, separated by layers of dramatic cheese, and compressed until the condiments run together. Read more

Cliff Doerksen, Chicago Reader: Director Antoine Fuqua has come a long way down since Training Day. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: On second thought, Brooklyn's Finest does indeed provide a new genre twist. This must be the only cop movie ever made where a character is driven off the deep end by mold. Read more

Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News: The problem for filmmakers trying to make this kind of movie is that they are now operating in a post-Wire world. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Tawdry, slick and self-consciously gritty. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: It's built of rigidly interlocking calamities, and the movie revels in the cartooniest details of street life. Read more

Christine Champ, Film.com: Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: An old-style potboiler about desperate cops in dire straits that overcooks both its story and its stars, with Ethan Hawke, Don Cheadle and Richard Gere the main ingredients left stewing. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: By turning Brooklyn's Finest into a morality tale, Fuqua lets the movie slip right through his undeniably talented fingers. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: While it's true that the characters here are types -- the frazzled family man, the tortured undercover agent, the just-punching-a-clock loser -- Fuqua gets some great actors to inhabit them. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Brooklyn's Finest may well have a future on cable as a drinking game. At one sip per cuss word, though, few viewers will still be conscious for the ending... Read more

Sara Vilkomerson, New York Observer: Antoine Fuqua is a master of this kind of anxiety -- much like his acclaimed Training Day, there are moments so nerve-racking one is actually afraid to look directly at the screen. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Fuqua's sucker-punch of a picture is taut noir of the first order. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Fuqua develops the atmosphere with sufficient grit to generate a degree of narrative drive and momentum during the final 30 minutes but it takes an inordinate amount of time to get to that point and it's debatable whether the payoff is worth [it]. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: Biblical trilogy bolstered by strong performances and a powerful message. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The film has a basic strength in its performances and craft, but falls short of the high mark Fuqua obviously set for himself. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: A melodrama about three cliches in search of a bloodbath. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The adventures are sometimes interesting; there are stirring, chaotic outbursts of violence. But yelling and shooting alone don't engage the imagination, and the domestic interludes verge on soap opera. Read more

Joe Holleman, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: In the end, audiences will be neither shaken nor stirred. Just bored and confused. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: As directed by Antoine Fuqua, the film is well-acted, occasionally hair-raising but ultimately made from stale material. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: There's nothing particularly original here in this grime-and-grit saga, but the weak material is elevated by the cast. Read more

Aaron Hillis, Time Out: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: It's good to see Snipes back on the big screen, and the scenes he shares with Cheadle are a highlight. But there's so much unremitting pain, such a constant string of calamities in the lives of all the players, that the dreariness overshadows the story. Read more

John Anderson, Variety: The performances are uniformly good, but Training Day helmer Antoine Fuqua seems to lack the maturity as a filmmaker to match his casting or his budget. Read more

Robert Wilonsky, Village Voice: Filled with every cop-movie convention since the invention of gunpowder and curse words, Brooklyn's Finest is three movies in one, all of which you've seen before. Read more

John Anderson, Washington Post: At no time will the viewer be under the impression that the performers are engaged in anything but a recycling project, regurgitating 50 years of corrupt-cop movies. Fuqua is striving for gritty street cred and instead delivers a clone. Read more