THE MOVIE

Don Cheadle stars in Brooklyn's Finest.

Brooklyn's Finest is a movie about police officers, but this isn't your typical "every cops a good guy who gets the bad guy" movie. It's gritty and doesn't hold back and for that reason in particular Brooklyn's Finest is a solid movie with some excellent actors, and acting.

The movie centres around three main characters; Eddie, Sal and Tango. Eddie (played by Richard Gere) is a unhappily married police offier who has been with the force for 20 years. He has only got seven days until retirement and has been asked to train some new recruits. Sal (Ethan Hawke) works in the narcotics branch and has been working for the force for 12 years, Sal has a pregnant wife with five children and is struggling to make ends meet. Tango (played by Don Cheadle) has spent the last three years working undercover, including spending some time in jail, he is working towards getting his life back on track.

Brooklyn's Finest tells the story of one major crime operation that ends up uniting the police officers. Now, the idea of three separate stories then becoming one major story arc has been done before, but in Brooklyn's Finest it is done extremely well. You need to pay attention while you're watching as the movie ties everything up together extremely well.

Brooklyn's Finest looks great on Blu-Ray.

Brooklyn's Finest is a really solid movie, it's entertaining, realistic and gritty and well and truly set within the realm of plausibility, for a movie that didn't receive a lot of promotion when it was released Brooklyn's Finest certainly deserved it.

VIDEO
Just like the story is gritty, so is the visual backdrop in Brooklyn's Finest but this hasn't affected the transfer at all. While reviewing this disc our PlayStation 3 hovered around 20Mbps for the duration of the film. The movie spends a lot of time in the dark, but doesn't suffer for it. Small details like being able to see watch hands on a character's watch in the dark make the transfer stand out. The daytime scenes are brilliant and show the cityscape wonderfully. Despite the fact that there is quite a few night time scenes there is not much grain at all in the film.

AUDIO
Brooklyn's Finest features a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio transfer and it's solid, there is some really good sound effects in the audio. The film really doesn't utilise a full surround sound system but it still packs quite a punch. Unfortunately the film comes with no subtitles at all, not even English subtitles which is a little bit surprising, and disappointing.

Yep, a car has been torched...

EXTRAS
There are a few special features included on the disk for Brooklyn's Finest as well as a few Blu Ray exclusives. The special features are good, but short.

Conflict & Chaos: The Life of a New York Cop (6:49/HD): This featurette features the cast and the crew discussing the three main characters that appear in the film. It's in 1080p which looks brilliant.

An Eye for Detail (6:34/HD): This featurette focuses mainly on the director and how the films that Antoine Fuqua directs are so well thought out. Antoine Fuqua is a wonderful director so this is certainly a featurette worth watching.

From the MTA to the WGA (5:16/HD): This is a short featurette that takes an interesting look at the writer of Brooklyn's Finest, Michael Martin, as this is the first film Michael Martin has written.

Boys N the Real Hood (5:48/HD): This isn't a profile on real cops in Brooklyn, but rather a quick look at why it was important for the film to shoot in authentic locations.

Brooklyn's Finest starring Ethan Hawke.

Three Cops and a Dealer (8:00/HD): This Blu-Ray exclusive is the most substantial featurette (which is a worry as it only clocks in at 8 minutes) and it looks at the cast and the story and how it was important for the cast to play the part.

Deleted Scenes (31:11/HD): Brooklyn's Finest is a long film, clocking in at 127 minutes, so the fact these deleted scenes were removed is a good thing for the pacing.

Theatrical Trailer (2:32/HD): The Theatrical trailer just in case you're not sure if you want to watch the movie or not. (We recommend you do by the way).

OVERALL
Brooklyn's Finest is a good film that tells an excellent story, it could be a movie you watch more than once and is certainly worth checking out at least once.

Review By: Luke Van Leuveran

THE MOVIE	7/10
THE VIDEO	8/10
THE AUDIO	7/10
THE EXTRAS	5/10
OVERALL	7/10