Dirty

The Ramparts Scandal of the 1990s entailed L.A. gang members infiltrating the police department, violently shaking down fellow gang-bangers, then, in perjured testimony after their stupidity busted wide open the whole mess, ruined the careers of honest cops in L.A.P.D.'s gang units. As final salt in the wound, taxpayers were soaked for millions in court settlements to the put-upon homies that got rough treatment from these hoods in blue.

The real villains of the piece were not-well-thought-through outreach projects to recruit more inner-city youth into the city's police force. This was yet another brainstorm of liberal social engineers far removed from the detritus wrought by their brilliance.

This movie, inspired by Ramparts, takes those facts and corkscrews them 180 degrees. The gangstas are the cops. All cops. The real villain is the SYSTEM, maaaaaaan.

This tired, hackneyed tripe represents the warped mindset of Hollywood's establishment today. It's a weak-tea Frankfurt School indictment of class, race, capital, injustice... (yaaaawn). I think one of the great injustices in this country today that so much of our media, so much of our political arena, is fabricated by these tapas-bar revolutionaries from the mean streets of Malibu, Brentwood and Beverly Hills. Decades ago, "Dirty" would be hailed as wonderfully subversive by reviewers feasting on the bounty of the very system they claim to despise. It's as subversive as "Dancing With the Stars". This is the only political viewpoint we get - in any movie or documentary produced in this country.

In that respect, this movie is similar to "Crash", that other self-celebration of hypocritical Lefty gibberish. In fact, the scene in which Gooding Jr. hassles a middle-class white couple was almost straight-lifted a few years later for "Crash", with the racial components reversed.

One reviewer here proposed "it's easy to behave morally in a sheltered, safe, middle-class environment." Well, it's easier not to become murderous animals in that kind of environment - that's for sure. And, evidently, it's a lot easier to develop a morality far removed from the real world by typing out scripts in tony neighborhoods with gates, guards, income levels in the stratosphere and worldviews in Never-Never Land.

DIRTY seems to be confused as to what it is. The viewer is lead to believe that the LAPD has an undercover anti-gang force made op of ex-gangbangers who know the streets and therefore know how to break the codes that allow gang crimes of drugs and violence to continue unfettered by arrests. Yes, we are all aware of the Rampart scandal that perhaps is the nidus for this story, but what DIRTY shows is a group of despicable, foul mouthed, evil, crime perpetrating opportunists who will do anything to make a hit - all 'protected' by a police force that condones their actions.

Cuba Gooding, Jr. is a fine actor whose recent roles have not allowed him to demonstrate his craft. Perhaps he wanted a role as a bad guy (in the vein of Denzel Washington, Richard Gere et al who opt for smarmy roles to 'prove' their acting grit!), but he is artificial in this film as a man willing and waiting to do filthy deeds without conscience. He is paired with the also fine actor Clifton Collins, Jr. as the Hispanic equivalent of Gooding's Black bad cop. The story jumps all over the place with so many subplots and characters identifiable only by their total body tattoo differences and hampered by a script that depends on the F word and the N word and M**F** word as a means of communication.

Gooding and Collins are partners and while Gooding seems to be the major offender to decency, Collins does little about it, leading us to believe he is an innocent victim to the Internal Affairs investigation that appears to be the endpoint of this drama. Just when the viewer is saturated by the dirt of this film's techniques and story, the gritty collision of loyalty and redemption enters at the very end, making reflection on the tale that has been assaulting our senses almost embarrassing for the viewer. In the police code, what is permissible, what is wrong, what is justifiable? Fighting crime with crime doesn't seem a viable answer, but we are left asking the question 'What is?' A disturbing film on many levels, not the least of which is the fact that Gooding's agent needs a heads up on finding this gifted actor some worthy roles! Grady Harp

Some great performances and a good story. The score was really cool, setting the mood throughout the movie and I thought Gooding did a convincing turn as a cop. Inevitably this will be compared to Denzel Washington's performance in Training Day. And although the budget for this film was probably a quarter of Trainign Day's, I think this film is superior. Why? The last 15 minutes in Training Day were a mess and tainted the movie. Here, the performances are on par and there's no ridiculous John Woo-type chase/action scene to end on. Clifton Collins is great and Gooding reminds us what an actor he can be if his agent gives him a halfway-decent script to work with. I recommend.

This is your standard cop drama crap that you can see better done on various television shows about cops. There's no new territory covered here or any new story involved. This is about two partners on the anti-gang unit. Cuba Gooding's character is more comfortable being dirty than his latino partner, who has visions that are representative of his guilt. We come on the scene as Clifton Colinns' character is well on his way to blowing in the entire department to Internal Affairs out of some misguided sense of guilt. This cop is an idiot and makes a number of dense-headed decisions in this movie that lead to a world of sh#4t.

THe plot is mainly watching the deconstruction and demise of our main characters as they continually make the wrong move and get themselves deeper into the gangster infested sh#4t.

A few too many scenes were borrowed from a far superior movie- Training Day.

This is watchable, and forgettable. It's nothing new.

Dirty is another cop movie about crooked cops, and there are many similarities between Training Day and Dirty, but I enjoyed Dirty more than Training Day. The Directing by Chris Fisher is much more Stylish then Antoine Fuqua's vision and also I thought the acting by Clifton Colins Jr. and Cuba were very good, i do believe Collins was a bit better because his character was not the same as Ethan Hawkes character in Training Day but Cuba's character in this film was almost Idenitical to Denzel's character. Also i enjoyed the somewhat complicated story in this film rather then Training Day's straight forward story. If you were to forget about seeing Traing Day and just watch this film as i did, i believe that you would enjoy this film more than Training Day. I recommend this film to anyone that likes cop movies and to people who don't have sensitive ears due to the hundreds of F words in the film and those who don't mind violence in their movies.