Brooklyn's FinestMovie Reviews

Poster art for "Brooklyn's Finest."

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So-so
Avg. Critic Score: 43 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
16 Iffy for 16+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 75
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    The best things about Brooklyn's Finest are the one-on-one scenes. These are fine actors. Read full review

  • 50
    Variety |

    It's more like "Hamlet" -- the ending, at least, with enough blood and corpses to fill a housing project. The only thing missing is a point, which Fuqua circles for two hours without landing. Read full review

  • 50
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    A melodrama about three cliches in search of a bloodbath. Read full review

  • 50
    Washington Post |

    The misapprehension about Brooklyn's Finest -- which was first shown at Sundance last year and has been heavily edited since -- is that it's a movie about police. It isn't: It's a movie about movies about police. Read full review

  • 50
    Los Angeles Times | Betsy Sharkey

    An old-style potboiler about desperate cops in dire straits that overcooks both its story and its stars. Read full review

  • 50
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    Ellen Barkin provides unexpected diversion in a madwoman cameo as the PD's brassiest brass. But otherwise the clichs keep coming. Read full review

  • 50
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Melodramatic and laden with cop-thriller clichs, the story, set in one of New York's toughest precincts, is contrived and inauthentic -- and also grisly. Read full review

  • 50
    The New York Times | A.O. Scott

    Like Tango, Sal and Eddie, Mr. Fuqua and Mr. Martin dig themselves into a pulpy predicament, and then find themselves unable to do anything but shoot their way out. The movie is wounded, but it's also too tough to kill. Read full review

  • 40
    The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt

    Here, due in large measure to a highly derivative screenplay, the director allows several reckless, unprofessional cops drive the movie into utter nonsense. Read full review

  • 0
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    Simultaneously full of itself and full of sh--, Brooklyn's Finest is a cop movie so shallow, dumb, derivative and infuriating that it feels like a parody of bad cop movies. Read full review

View more reviews for Brooklyn's Finest on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 16+ Violent, demeaning police drama too dark for most teens.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that Brooklyn's Finest is an exceedingly violent police drama starring Ethan Hawke, Don Cheadle, and Richard Gere, with lots of gunfights and killing. It's filled with wall-to-wall foul language (including "f--k," "s--t," and the "N"-word), intense sex scenes that include topless women, and a generally negative treatment of women. The three main characters face tough decisions that end up involving murder and theft. No one is redeemed, nor do they learn lessons, and the film is actually rather hopeless.
  • Families can talk about the strong violence in the film. How do characters react when other characters are shot and killed? Are they desensitized, or do they suffer? How does the violence make you react?
  • Why are women treated so poorly in an atmosphere of crime and police? Why are they all either strippers, hookers, or working for drug dealers? Why is the strongest female in the movie, Agent Smith (Ellen Barkin), so mean?
  • Sal justifies his behavior because he's trying to help his family, and because the drug money he's stealing doesn't actually provide any use for anyone other than wealthy city officials. Is he right?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: The movie's main point seems to be that New York cops eventually find themselves pushed into a corner and forced into making tough decisions that include stealing and murder.
  • rolemodels true0 Positive role models: Each of the three heroes tries to do the right thing, but winds up going down the wrong path. Sal desperately needs a new house for his wife and kids (his wife is sick from wood mold) and undercover Tango does not want to rat out a friend. They both take drastic and negative paths because of these goals. The third character, Eddie, is involved in a series of ambiguous decisions, none of which seem to turn out well. The exception is his final act, which is desperate and dangerous, but which has a good goal.
What to watch for
  • violence false4 Violence: The movie has very strong violence throughout, including the rough and demeaning treatment of women and prostitutes. Almost every character has a gun and uses it on some other character, sometimes without consequences. There are also scenes of characters beating each other with fists. Constant yelling.
  • sex false5 Sex: Eddie has intense, graphic sex with a topless prostitute. (Oral sex is included.) Many other women, including prostitutes, strippers, barmaids, and girlfriends of drug dealers, appear topless. There is occasional crass sex talk as well.
  • language false5 Language: A cornucopia of foul language here, with frequent uses of "f--k," "s--t," and the "N" word, in all their variations. We also hear "ass," "bitch," and many other words, including a few uses of "God" and Jesus" as exclamations.
  • consumerism false1 Consumerism: A Pepsi logo is visible in a storefront. The next shot shows some Pepsi on a shelf.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false4 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Drug dealers are at the center of the story. "Tango" is undercover as a drug dealer and Sal is a narcotics cop. Drugs are visible and pervasive throughout. Eddie's prostitute snorts cocaine. Eddie drinks both whisky and beer and has a drinking problem. Sal smokes cigarettes regularly.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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