Istinti criminali

Corrupt cops Frank Divinci (James Belushi) and Rodriguez (Tupac Shakur) kill a drug dealer to rob him with stripper Cynthia Webb (Lela Rochon). Rodriguez owes a large gambling debt to a loan shark. Divinci and Rodriguez are assigned to investigate the murder of the drug dealer who turns out to be an undercover DEA agent. They frame a homeless man (Dennis Quaid) for the crime. The cover-up becomes more and more complicated.

This is an interesting little crime drama. The Dunner trial should be extended because that provides some of the tension. He gets off and is never heard from again. The various story threads should combine and cross until the whole thing blows up at the climax. Belushi does bombastic but he needs more desperation. Tupac is pretty good and shows that he could have been an interesting actor if he lived.

I didn't have very high expectations for this one (partly because I am not terribly keen on James Belushi) but actually, the film was pretty good.

The important thing is to understand the film as a thriller, rather than as a realistic or atmospheric piece. The subject matter and designated environment would point to noir, but the film fails to capture a sense of place or encapsulate an environment and way of life in a way that would justify such a designation. The environment is not actually unrealistic, but again it is not really captured either. Instead, the grit and indeed realism, tends to throw off the viewer, causing him to anticipate a different type of film. "Gang Related" is about plot, and there are a satisfactory number of twists and turns for the viewer. One could easily imagine a movie like this being adapted to the stage.

The acting is generally of a very high standard with strong performances by Shakur and Belushi. The weakness of this film is rather in the fact that the film fails to create or capture a set of especially nuanced characters, and similarly fails to create a strong sense of place. A different director and different cinematography could have done this without substantial alteration. The dramatic twists and turns in the plot also could be considered a weakness, but this would be due to a misunderstanding of the type of story being told, rather than because that story is in itself a bad one.

Gang Related had a great premise, which was enough to get me to want to see it. James Belushi (K-9, Race the Sun) and the late Tupac Shakur (Gridlocked, Poetic Justice) play two corrupt cops. They sell stolen drugs, kill the guy they sold it to, take the drugs & money, and label the crime as gang related. This has worked for the first ten times, but the 11th doesn't. The 11th guy they killed, turned out to be an undercover cop. So the two are put in charge of finding the killer. So knowing that they themselves killed him and could be in huge trouble, they begin to look for possible candidates to take the fall. Eventually they decide on a homeless man, wonderfully played by an unrecognizable Dennis Quaid (Switchback, Dragonheart). They then get Belushi's girlfriend and stripper, Lela Rochon (Waiting to Exhale, The Chamber) to testify against him. Soon though things don't work out as Rochon starts to lose confidence and more evidence comes out about the mysterious homeless man. Belushi and Shakur start to lose their trust and confidence with each other. This is a well-written film with some great dialogue and an awesome ending. James Belushi is great as the mastermind behind the plot and the one who won't give up. Tupac Shakur is just as good (in his final role) as the partner who has at least some sort of a conscience. Rochon is good. Fine support work is turned in by James Earl Jones and David Paymer as Quaid's lawyers. I highly recommend this movie. Rated R: (violence, language, nudity)

Much better movie than I expected. Jim Belushi and Tupac Shakur have a good chemistry as 2 crooked, conflicted cops. Tupac Shakur actually played a very good character as the increasingly troubled cop. He was willing to bend some rules, and put some money in his pocket, but things have now gone entirely too far for him. Jim Belushi plays a morally dumb cop who continues to make the situation worse, and continues to believe he can probably manipulate his way out of anything.

Dennis Quaid, James Earl Jones and Lela Rochon were all excellent.

I didn't expect too much from this, but I was drawn into a well-done, well-acted movie.

This is a solid noir movie with outstanding performances from Jim Belushi and Tupac Shakur, but the thing I've appreciated most is the history , and the ending too is so different from the average of this kind of movies. Belushi is so convincing, he is nearly perfect in his part ( the corrupted cop ) and there is Gary Cole too in a little part. But, again, the best of this movie is the history, that evolves so surprising and unexpected.