Brooklyn's Finest Casting Arrested By Procedural

Brooklyn's Finest

The title in Antonie Fuqua's latest film, Brooklyn's Finest, is a reference to police officers but I think it is more suited for the film's casting. The most significant thing about Finest is the number of actors that appear over the course of the film. It seemed like every two minutes a familiar actor makes their cameo on screen. I guess they all must have been really passionate about the material; it is just too bad that this same passion did not translate into a better film.

Brooklyn's Finest follows three separate police officers as they struggle with what their jobs have turned them into. Eddie (Richard Gere) is a seven days from retirement and wants to do his time and go home. Jaded by all that he has seen and done, Eddie struggles with alcohol addiction and his desire to commit suicide. Eddie's retirement plans our complicated when he is asked to show a new recruit the ropes. Sal (Ethan Hawke) is a narcotics officer struggling to provide for his family on a cop's salary. When the mold in Sal's home starts to make his wife (Lili Taylor) sick, Sal is determined to get his family into a new home at all cost. Even if that means stealing money from the drug dealers he arrests. Tango (Don Cheadle) is an undercover cop who has been under for far too long. He starts to question whether drug dealers like Caz (Wesley Snipes) are any worse than the upper police brass who care more about looking good in the papers than they do about crime on the streets.

As I mentioned above, the casting is really strong in this film. Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, and Ethan Hawke are all vastly talented actors who try their best to overcome the shortcomings of the material. Cheadle was the standout for me, though Hawke's story line does get the most screen time. Personally, it was nice to see Wesley Snipes back on the big screen in a significant role. He looked far more engaged here than he did in The Art of War II: Betrayal, which was the last film I saw Snipes in. The supporting players are equally strong with actors such as Vincent D'Onofrio, Ellen Barkin, Will Patton, Michael K. Williams, and pretty much the bulk of The Wire cast all taking small roles in the film. At times you will get so distracted by the actors on screen that you almost forget how formulaic the movie is.

Brooklyn's Finest strives to be a gritty cop drama were all the characters live in that grey area of life. The film even opens with a discussion on how sometimes breaking the law is actually a good thing for bad people to do in times of crisis. Yet the true murkiness is not found on the hard Brooklyn street but in the film's script. The picture is a slow burner that actually starts off very promising. Antonie Fuqua's film teases us at first, just when you think the payoff is about to happen...he decides to keep you dangling just a little longer. Unfortunately we are dangling for so long that Fuqua give us, unintentionally of course, a film with two endings. The first one is what I like to call the "false ending." It is the point in the film where, if the credits began roll, you would feel like you had a satisfying experience. I will not give away the details but will merely say it is the redemption moment for the characters. It is where they wake up and realize that they need to start making better choices.

The only problem with this style of ending is that it does not fit with the usual aesthetics of an Antonie Fuqua film. After seeing seven of his nine films, the one thing I have come to expect from Fuqua is some sort of shootout or action sequence to cap things off. A film is not over until the body count rises and the characters are all out of bullets. Which brings me to the preposterous final act of the film, or the "official ending" if you will. This is where all logic is thrown out the window and the men find themselves in the same housing complex in "Dirty Harry" mode . It is at this point in which both the story and the characters lose all credibility. By time the film ends we feel nothing for these characters or the situations they found themselves in. Brooklyn's Finest might have actually been a decent film without this ending. Sure it would still be formulaic but enjoyable nonetheless. Sadly the final act of the film is so bad that it is tough to recommend this film on any level.

Weight Loss Curbs Gorging to the Break of Dawn

Daybreakers

Way back in 2003 I saw a crazy little zombie movie at TIFF called Undead. The movie was not great but it did provide that guilty pleasure fun that often comes with Midnight Madness selections. The one thing that did strike me about the film was the style. The directors, The Spierig Brothers, showed a lot of promise from a visual standpoint. Seven years after tackling zombies, The Spierig Brothers have returned with their futuristic vampire tale, Daybreakers.

The year is 2019 and the world has changed drastically. Vampires now rule the earth and the remaining humans, who opted not to be turned into vampires, are being harvested like cattle for their blood. With the human population declining at rapid rate, and the vampire civilization on the brink of starvation, hematologist Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) is working on finding a blood substitute that his boss, Charles Bromley (Sam Neil), can market. Despite working for the company that harvests human, Edward refuses to drink human blood himself opting for pig’s blood instead. Yet even Edward knows that this will not last. His body is already starting to show the early stages of the horrific transformation that lack of human blood causes. Which makes Edward’s chance encounter with Audrey (Claudia Karvan), a key figure in the human resistance movement, so crucial. Audrey informs Edward that a sole human, Lionel “Elvis” Cormac (Willem Dafoe), might be the key to stopping the vampire starvation epidemic, and saving the human race as well.

The first thing you will notice about Daybreakers is that it is not the action film the trailers lead you to believe it is. In fact, I would argue that the overall action is rather minimal in the film. What we get instead is a surprisingly smart science fiction flick where the directors really pay attention to the little details. Everything from how the vampires move around in the daylight to how society functions in general is well thought out. The Spierig Brothers somehow managed to make a rather unconventional vampire tale while still staying within the traditional aesthetics of the genre.

While the social commentary, which mirrors both our past and present culture, is interesting, the real strength of the film is its visual style. Despite the large amount of gore, Daybreakers never feels like it is all about excess. In fact, I was surprised how effective opting for a more subtle route worked for this picture. The directors made the right choice to stick primarily with a science fiction feel instead of going for straight horror. When the film does play it big, in regards to the gore, it never lingers longer than it should.

The element that really holds Daybreakers back is the script. The Spierig Brothers try to incorporate too many different ideas into the script. There is the conflict between Edward and his brother (Michael Dorman); the storyline with Charles and his human daughter; dealing with the bat-like monsters; the commentary on corporate greed, the human resistance movement, etc. With so many arcs in the air at the same time several plot points fail to connect the way they should. An example of this is Edward’s lab partner who is the catalyst for one of several unnecessary twists in the film.

As science fiction films go, Daybreakers is another promising step in the right direction for the Spierig Brothers. Their visual attention to detail is outstanding and they once again show that they can create original tales from even the most overused genre. Yet, by trying to do too much with the script, Daybreakers is merely an okay film instead of the great one it had the potential to be.

Lovely Time In New York

New York, I Love You

From the creators behind the Paris Je T’aime comes the second film in the “love series”. Similar to Paris Je T’aime, New York, I Love You features numerous vignettes on the subject of love from 12 directors from around the world. These directors include: Mira Nair, Allen Hughes, Shekhar Kapur, Natalie Portman, Brett Ratner, and Scarlett Johansson just to name a few. The film also features an all star cast with the likes of: Julie Christie, Orlando Bloom, Natalie Portman, Shia LaBeouf, Ethan Hawke, Andy Garcia, Maggie Q, Chris Cooper, Justin Bartha, Robin Wright Penn, Blake Lively, Christina Ricci, John Hurt, Bradley Cooper, Anton Yelchin, Jame Caan, Kevin Bacon, Hayden Christensen, etc.

Personally I found the majority of the shorts hit the mark. There were five or so in particular that were blisteringly funny. One of my favourite vingnettes included, surprising enough, Brett Ratner’s segment with Anton Yelchin. Yelton plays a boy who is stuck taking a girl (Olivia Thrilby) in a wheelchair to the prom. Yelchin and Thrilby give great performance that are sure to have you laughing hard by time you reach the end. Some other standout segments include Mira Nair’s short with Natalie Portman, Yvan Attal’s with Ethan Hawke and Maggie Q, and Shekhar Kapur's with Shia LaBeouf and Julie Christie.

To be honest only a few segments really fizzle out. The weakest one being Scarlett Johansson’s Coney Island segment which stars Kevin Bacon. I have read recently that this segment has been left out of the latest version of the film (I saw the version screened at TIFF 08). Word is it will be on the dvd edition of the film. Which is fitting when you really think about it, the short is not bad but it does not fit with the overall production. It really does slow down the pacing of the film. New York, I Love You is another enjoyable installment in the growing love series. I am looking forward to seeing what the next two installments, set in Jerusalem and Singapore respectively, will bring.