Young Poor & Angry Press

Brooklyn’s Finest starts off with a bang and never seems to let up. Director Atoine Fuqua the director of one of the coolest martial arts films The Replacement Killers comes back to capture the inner workings of Brooklyn’s city streets and the different ways each cop copes with them.

Thing I liked about this was how real and gritty each of the characters were. You didn’t know whether to love or hate them at times. All of them are flawed in their own way and have vices whether it be drinking, friendships, money problems or for one character racism. There are times when watching this you can’t help but wonder if you should be cheering or booing a character’s actions. To answer is neither, because in the end the film shows you just how uneven things really are when it comes down to being a cop in any major city.

I’ve got no real love for law enforcement, but this movie made me respect how tough it is for some like the NYPD. Not everyone is going to like this film. It’s not happy, it’s got no real morality and at times it can be a bit confusing. Though over all I think director Anoine Fuqua and new writer Michael C. Martin did a bang up job.

I’d been hearing about Kevin Smith’s directing of a buddy cop comedy for some time through his twitter. I waited with anticipation to get to see this. I’m forever complaining about the death of the buddy cop comedy movie. I grew up with Beverly Hills Cop, Lethal Weapon and Turner and Hootch. All that nostalgia comes rushing back when you go see this flick.

From the cheesey background music during intense seens between Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis. These two work so well off of each other it’s actually a real pleasure to watch. Morgan on his own is hilarious when dealing with his wife, and the scenes between Willis and Jason Lee’s cameo are priceless. Never knew Lee could be such a dick! The movie is packed with random stars like Adam Brody and Kevin Pollack as well as Sean William Scott’s hilarious idiot cat burgler role.

Much like other Smith directed films this one doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s a fun movie meant to be laughed along with, not over analyzed for it’s cliches. Kevin Smith pays homage to the buddy cop genre well, I’d be stoked for a sequel.

Apparently the studio decided to do a limited theater run, because until I was watching television late one night, I hadn’t even seen a preview for the film - whose cast was incredible. Sunshine Cleaning is the story of a down-on-her-luck single mother played by the always adorable Amy Adams (who I still think might secretly be Isla Fisher’s sister) and her wild and unpredictable sister, Nora, played by Emily Blunt (Devil Wears Prada.) In an effort to pay for her son’s private schooling, the two start a crime scene clean up business with the help of their father (Alan Arkin) and a kindly shop owner with one arm (Clifton Collins Jr.)

If the film’s quirky tragic/comedic style seems at all familiar it’s probably due to it being very similar to 2006’s sleeper hit Little Miss Sunshine. The story is told from three perspectives and allows you to get inside each character’s head without being told out right what is going on. The scene which summed up why everyone should see this film is Rose’s (Adams) speech about her new found crime scene cleaning service to a group of her former high school rivals during a baby shower. A speech which shows Rose transforming from a unispired and emotionally insecure woman whose sleeping with a married man, to a inspiried confident single mom.

Another surprising and enjoyable subplot is baby sister Nora’s coping with the death of their mother when they were young. As well as her new found attraction to the same sex, which is more implied when Nora finds the daughter of a woman whose home the sisters cleaned after she committed suicide. The relationship is wrought with tension, and the scene by the train tracks is easily one of the best uses of visual catharsis in cinema recently. Sunshine Cleaning’s writer Megan Holley (her first film) and director Christine Jeffs (Slyvia and Stroke) did an excellent job of visualizing the complex relationship between Nora and Lynn (Mary Lynn Rajskub.)

One of the best performances was by film newcomer Jason Spevack who plays Rose’s gifted son. The kid is awesome, and his performance is top notch. Sunshine Cleaning is out on DVD and on I-Tunes right now. If you’re looking for a comedy that isn’t ripe with slapstick gags, lost finances, and wacky characters, then this is definitely for you.

From seeing the trailer in whatever god awful movie I sat through (probably the new Transformers) I could tell that The Hangover was going to be an instant “guy movie” classic. That is until I found out it was being written by John Lucas and Scott Moore who brought you such timeless classics as Four Christmases and Ghost of Girlfriends Past. The two redeemed themselves though by pairing up with Todd Phillips, the awesome director of Old School.

The movie is from beginning to end one rip roaring incoherent journey through one night in Las Vegas during a Bachelor party. Think if you mixed up Very Bad Things with Dude Where’s My Car. Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), Allen (Zach Galifianaksis) embark on their adventure to find out exactly what happened that night, why there is a tiger in their room and what the hell happened to Doug (Justin Bartha, the sidekick in National Treasure.)

I won’t give anything away, but hands down the best cameo goes to Mike Tyson, who plays himself and sings while then knocking out Ed Helms. I rewound the scene about five times, and laughed each time. This is one of the few movies that lives up to it’s comedic hype.