Metascore
43 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 33 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 33
  2. Negative: 3 out of 33
  1. 75
    The best things about Brooklyn's Finest are the one-on-one scenes. These are fine actors.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 63
    Fuqua's portrait of Brooklyn is brutal and gritty; if only his characters were as vivid.
  5. 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."
  6. 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."
  7. 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.
  8. 60
    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.
  9. 58
    To quote Yogi Berra, it’s déjà vu all over again.
  10. Good actors and a talented director doing what they can to bring the truth to a script that's mostly bogus.
  11. 50
    By turning Brooklyn's Finest into a morality tale, Fuqua lets the movie slip right through his undeniably talented fingers.
  12. 50
    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.
  13. A melodrama about three cliches in search of a bloodbath.
  14. Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    50
    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.
  15. Reviewed by: John Anderson
    50
    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.
  16. Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    50
    What’s missing is the assurance of tone that a Lumet would provide.
  17. Each of the actors has strong moments but the relentless intensity becomes monotonous.
  18. Reviewed by: Joe Holleman
    50
    In the end, audiences will be neither shaken nor stirred. Just bored and confused.
  19. Ellen Barkin provides unexpected diversion in a madwoman cameo as the PD's brassiest brass. But otherwise the clichés keep coming.
  20. Fine moments, images and performances stand cheek-by-jowl with the clichéd, the on-the-nose and the slightly dopey.
  21. An old-style potboiler about desperate cops in dire straits that overcooks both its story and its stars.
  22. 50
    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.
  23. Reviewed by: John Anderson
    50
    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.
  24. Reviewed by: Cliff Doerksen
    50
    If there were any more cops on the edge in this arrhythmic, ham-fisted crime drama, Brooklyn would need a bigger edge.
  25. 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.
  26. Here, due in large measure to a highly derivative screenplay, the director allows several reckless, unprofessional cops drive the movie into utter nonsense.
  27. Reviewed by: Kerry Lengel
    40
    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.
  28. Reviewed by: Aaron Hillis
    40
    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.
  29. Brooklyn’s Finest is mo’ wrong than right.
  30. Reviewed by: Robert Wilonsky
    40
    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.
  31. 38
    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."
  32. 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.
  33. 0
    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.
User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 48 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 6
  2. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. Antonine Fuqua's "Brooklyn's Finest" passes its exaggerated cliches and foolish dialogue to present a grim, realistic buddy cop environment with powerful acting from veteran actors. Full Review »
  2. This movie has 3 stories intertwined with each other. I like these kind of movies; some are excellent like â
  3. I bought this movie on Blu-Ray for $9.99 and hoped that I purchased a good movie, but when I started watching the movie I realized I was wrong. This movie should be called Brooklyn's Crappiest because that's what it is. As a person that grew up in Brooklyn, NY in between Sunset Park and Bay Ridge, believe me when I say this is not Brooklyn's Finest. The only thing this movie has right is the scenery and that's not saying much, but because it made me almost feel like I was back in BK it gets a 6 out of 10. I wanted to see these so called "Finest" at their finest hour(s) not their worst hour(s). This movie almost makes Brooklyn look bad in most peoples eyes when sadly it really is not. Brooklyn and Queens are by far the best and nicest places to live in New York City. If you want to watch a good movie checkout: The Departed, American Gangster, or even Serpico. Full Review »