[Reaper16]

Just watched Brooklyn's Finest. It is a strange film. The acting is on point. The cinematography, the shots, the edits, the cuts are all well-done on the part of director Antoine Fuqua & crew. A lot of the press coverage of the movie centered on the screenplay, written by a first-time writer who was working at a tollbooth, and that screenplay has a nice, real sense of dialogue.

So why is this film a disappointment? Well, whatever merits the script does have is tarnished by the use of just about every cop movie cliche in existence. And while the acting is certainly good across the board the characters are written pretty flatly. And while the film looks good, it is also laboriously long and in need of trimming. And while it is structured like a Greek tragedy and clearly influenced by The Wire, it lacks enough emotional investment to matter and it falls short of its ambitions & doesn't look graceful doing it.