Flics sans scrupules

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.

I'm surprised that I actually liked this movie. Tupac made some good music, but his acting left a lot to be desired. I didn't like "Juice" or "Above the Rim" and I simply tolerated "Poetic Justice." "Gang Related" showed a maturation. I'm not ready to hand Tupac the Oscar, but it was refreshing to see him in a role other than a mere thug.

As for Jim Belushi: he's not high on my list of quality actors either.

Belushi and Tupac play two cops: Frank Divinci and Rodriguez. The movie begins with them killing a guy they just sold drugs to. It was a ruse they set up in order to rob drug dealers. Their plan was to simply brand the murder gang related and be done with it--no one cares about drug dealers and gang bangers anyway right? Well, it turns out that the suspected drug dealer was a DEA agent and the case wasn't going to be so easily dismissed. Now Divinci and Rodriguez needed a patsy to pin the murder on. Divinci thought he hit the jackpot when he found a homeless man (Dennis Quaid) outside his girlfriend's house. He could pin the rap on him, get his GF, Cynthia Watt (Lela Rochon), to be a witness and everything would be OK, right? Wrong!

This tale of police corruption in an anonymous metropolitan city got on one track and didn't fall off. It remained consistent and committed to the plot it latched onto. The two main characters, while corrupt and deserving of any ill-fate that came their way, were still somewhat likeable. A tiny part of me wanted to see the two of them escape their perilous predicament. The movie wasn't incredibly suspenseful, but it was intriguing and able to hold my attention which is much better than a lot of movies.

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.

I really didn't want to rent this film, but one of my friends, PA(nick-name)who was a big fan of Tupac Shakur talked me into it. I am glad he did, because this was one of the best films of 1998. James Belushi was great in this film, and so was Shakur and Lela Rochon. James Earl Jones appears in a little role in the last 40 minutes of the film.He was great, too. However, the film is about two corrupt cops who sell drugs, then they kill

the buyer and steal the drugs and everything else of value on him. It had worked 10 times. But unfortunately the 11th time(The one we saw) goes wrong.The buyer was a undercover-cop and they has been set to do the investigation.Now the film really starts. The two cops now start looking for someone to blame, and a

homeless man named Tom looks like an easy target. The rest you can see for yourself.You really should. The movie is Great

I gave it 9/10!