It’s the combination of reality and the ugly truth. Indifference, mixed with a challenge of the “no one ever really dies” mantra. Raw, honest, and dreary in the style of Crash, the blurred line between good cop and bad cop resurfaces in Brooklyn’s Finest, but this time we’re not sure if there’s even a line drawn.

What makes you a good cop anyway? Is it the years of service one gives to the force….risking life and limb (and sanity for that matter) in order to sustain the vision of police work one had as a child? For Eddie (Richard Gere) the end isn’t justified by the means.

Or perhaps it’s the ability to provide for one’s family, like Sal (Ethan Hawke) has to do…when money is scarce and bills are running high, is it the badge that’ll protect the family from misfortune?

But there’s always the question of whether it’s even possible to be a good friend and a good cop at the same time? Because for Tango (Don Cheadle), there’s only room for one title when you’ve got one foot in the law pool and the other in the drug pool.

When it comes down to it…three different cops with three different ties to the force struggle to figure out what their badges are really worth.

Brooklyn’s Finest doesn’t do anything to make police work look good. In fact, it almost makes the profession as cold hearted as the bad guys they chase after. But the honesty, as presented by director Antoine Fuqua(Training Day, Shooter) is a much appreciated and familiar one. Though there’s nothing original about the way this movie is drawn, and nothing noteworthy about the way it attempts to characterize the hood, the forte is the cast- led by a trio of award winning, extremely talented and versatile actors- Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke and Richard Gere.

In addition, a triumphant return to the screen for Wesley Snipes, as the high rolling Caz, a man about his money, his business and his loyalty. The scenes with Snipes and Cheadle are the highlights of this movie, as they relate to each other in a remarkable way. If you take away any lines from this movie, they will probably be from a scene with these two.

I’ll give it a little leeway. Brooklyn’s Finest is not about ending the age-old problem of police brutality, or violence in the inner city neighborhoods. It’s not about shooting up bad guys, or busting intricate drug deals. It doesn’t glorify being a cop in a bad city, or even being a drug lord and owning the streets. It’s a bit more realistic than all that. This movie is simply about asking what we’re willing to live for, and what we’re willing to die for.

And if they are the same thing, in the bitter picture that Fuqua has painted… you’ll never make it alive.

Rating: 3.6/5