Brooklyn's Finest

Three police officers work the same neighbourhood without knowing each other. Sal steals drug money to buy a bigger house for his family. Tango has been under so long he has lost track of which side he is on. Eddie, days from retirement, is an alcoholic and completely spent. The three lines converge at the Van Dyke housing projects. Antoine Fuqua directed from a script by Michael C. Martin, who cited Italian neorealism rather than Hollywood cop films as his reference, naming De Sica and Jim Jarmusch. Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke and Wesley Snipes star. It was shot across Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens in July 2008. It opened at number two with around 13.4 million dollars and took 36.4 million worldwide against a 17 million budget. Reviews split: 44 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, while Roger Ebert gave it three stars out of four, saying its basic strength was in the performances even as it fell short of its ambitions. Who it is for: viewers who like bleak police drama and stories of moral disintegration. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the three strands to genuinely connect. The convergence is forced, and it is the film's weakest decision.