Brooklyn's Finest
Overture Films | Release Date: March 5, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
43
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
24
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The best things about Brooklyn's Finest are the one-on-one scenes. These are fine actors. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
The title Brooklyn's Finest is drowning in irony, of course, but Fuqua's moves are less obvious: His film is classical and gritty, his violence makes you want to duck and run. Read full review
70
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
Hawke - continuing an evolution toward stronger, more intense acting than anyone might've predicted from him 20 years ago - drives the movie. He makes Sal a jangled, edgy presence, his conscience torn several ways. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Fuqua's portrait of Brooklyn is brutal and gritty; if only his characters were as vivid. Read full review
63
ObserverSara Vilkomerson
Mr. Gere is miscast as Eddie, too naturally regal in bearing to be the screw-up he’s supposed to be, and for a broken man, he still moves with the same confidence as his younger self did in "An Officer and a Gentleman." Read full review
63
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike Scott
This isn't the kind of film that will leave audiences in awe of clever writing. Rather, it will leave them thinking how much Fuqua wanted to make a movie version of "The Wire." Read full review
60
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
An agreeably chewy, pulpy work of old-fashioned crime cinema, a fair bit overcooked and overlong, but worth catching for its acting, its atmosphere and its action set-pieces. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazinePete Hammond
In a brief supporting role Meg Ryan is also fine along with Brian F. O’Byrne and Will Patton. Shannon Kane is memorable as the prostitute Gere hooks up with. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
To quote Yogi Berra, it’s déjà vu all over again. Read full review
50
VarietyJohn Anderson
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
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Ellen Barkin provides unexpected diversion in a madwoman cameo as the PD's brassiest brass. But otherwise the clichés keep coming. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe Holleman
In the end, audiences will be neither shaken nor stirred. Just bored and confused. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderCliff Doerksen
If there were any more cops on the edge in this arrhythmic, ham-fisted crime drama, Brooklyn would need a bigger edge. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Good actors and a talented director doing what they can to bring the truth to a script that's mostly bogus. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
By turning Brooklyn's Finest into a morality tale, Fuqua lets the movie slip right through his undeniably talented fingers. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
What’s missing is the assurance of tone that a Lumet would provide. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.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
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
A melodrama about three cliches in search of a bloodbath. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Melodramatic and laden with cop-thriller clichés, the story, set in one of New York's toughest precincts, is contrived and inauthentic -- and also grisly. Read full review
50
Washington PostJohn Anderson
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
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Each of the actors has strong moments but the relentless intensity becomes monotonous. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle Smith
At one sip per cuss word, though, few viewers will still be conscious for the ending, in which the three cops finally come to the same place, each for an entirely different but equally ridiculous reason. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
An old-style potboiler about desperate cops in dire straits that overcooks both its story and its stars. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
Fine moments, images and performances stand cheek-by-jowl with the clichéd, the on-the-nose and the slightly dopey. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
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 full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterKirk 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
40
Village VoiceRobert Wilonsky
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 full review
40
Time OutAaron Hillis
Antoine Fuqua’s second-rate retread of his own "Training Day" is a bloated, multithread drama concerning three burnt-out cops at the end of their seemingly unconnected ropes. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicKerry Lengel
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 full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Brooklyn’s Finest is mo’ wrong than right. Read full review
38
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
A crowded cast of some of the finest actors in the cinema act the hell out of a gimmicky, episodic, hit-or-miss script in Brooklyn’s Finest, Antoine Fuqua’s latest attempt to relive the glories of "Training Day." Read full review
10
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
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 full review
0
Rolling StonePeter 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
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