GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Sharkflei Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Gino Cox "Gang Related" is a passable diversion, if one doesn't take it too seriously. The performances are solid, with a stellar cast. Technical aspects are more than adequate, with a refreshing lack of jiggly-cam shots. The script offers some reasonably interesting three-dimensional characters. Dialogue is decent and the plot has a few satisfyingly unexpected twists. However, the script is also very weak in several areas. It attempts to intricately interweave the subplots and characters, but relies too heavily on coincidences. This is especially evident in the closing scenes. It's weak on police procedures, particularly regarding chain of custody, which is a key element. Motivations don't always make sense. At one point, an undercover investigator makes a drug buy, apparently with unmarked bills, without any backup, then leaves without putting the drugs in an evidence pouch and doesn't arrest the sellers or attempt to follow them or anything. At another point, somebody who supposedly has a hundred thousand dollars in cash socked away, needs to steal a few hundred dollars. The top-notch cast deserved a better screenplay.

FlashCallahan Two corrupt cops murder an undercover DEA agent by mistake, and frantically try to cover their tracks by framing a homeless man for the crime.That involves juggling evidence, coaching witnesses, and improvising to keep their desperate scheme from unravelling...James Belushi should stick to comedy, or be a comedy sidekick. There is a lot of talk of Tupac becoming a great 'actor', and while he is okay in this, there is nothing to show he could have been the next big thing.The way rappers or 'hip hop stars' do in movies, i'm sure he'd be concentrating on his music, or making straight to blu ray movies with Snipes.The premise of this film is so so good, and has great potential, that it's such a shame it's treated in such a hap-hazard way.Belushi is unbelievable as a dirty cop, and i was expecting Jerry Lee to come to his rescue.There are the inevitable double crosses and the predictable ending. It tries to be like a gritty seventies cop movie, but ends up dreary and boring.Quaid is the saving grace in this movie, and his character is the most interesting arc in the whole movie. It's a shame he's not in it longer.

zardoz-13 Everything that can go wrong does go wrong for a couple of corrupt homicide cops in "Disorganized Crime" director Jim Kouf's "Gang Related," an ensemble police procedural thriller that springs one startling surprise after another on its unsuspecting audience. This above-average but unsavory chronicle of a crime coming unraveled boasts a talented cast in a heavyweight tragicomedy of errors. What elevates "Gang Related" several notches above the ordinary gangsta epic is the film's old-fashioned portrayal of good and evil in a morally ordered universe where everybody must atone for their sins. The filmmakers have borrowed elements as diverse as O'Henry's classic comeuppance storytelling style and combined it with bits and pieces from big-budgeted movies such as William Friedkin's "To Live and Die in L.A." (1985) and Joseph Ruben's "Money Train" (1995). Indeed, Kouf's accomplished piece of film-making looks like the flip side of Peter Hyams' buddy cop movie "Running Scared" with Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines, although the cops that Crystal and Hines played were good guys to the core.The characters in "Gang Related" serve as the pawns of a serpentine plot. None of them exert control over what transpires and the irony of this isn't lost on audiences. Few ensemble movies reach the big screen anymore, so this proves both surprising and gratifying to see such a polished effort like this one. Writer & director Jim Kouf produced a similar saga with his 1989 crime spoof "Disorganized Crime." Everything went awry for a gang of thieves in "Disorganized Crime." In "Gang Related," everything goes awry, too, but for the police. The chief difference is that Kouf plays it straight right down the line. Although the parable teeters at times on travesty, Kouf never shifts the accent to buffoonery. You know something is different, too, when a couple marquee stars shows up in minor of crucial roles. You can barely recognize Dennis Quaid at first as a remorseful derelict and James Earl Jones's arrival occurs straight out of the blue.As Detective Frank DaVinci and Rodriguez, James Belushi and Tupac Shakur create a credibly chummy chemistry. Arguing that drug dealers constitute the scum of society, they set them up for buys, knock them off, and then attribute the murders to gangs. They have iced nine drug dealers with this reliable method of operation, using narcotics secretly liberated then later returned to the police evidence room. DaVinci and Rodriguez get the shock of their lives when they learn that their latest victim, Lionel Hudd (Kool Moe Dee of "Panther"), was an undercover D.E.A. agent. Moreover, Hudd's superior, Agent Richard Simms (Gary Cole), is determined to do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of Hudd's murder and applies a lot of heat on the L.A.P.D. to find a suspect. Neither detective wants to confess to the crime so they search for a patsy. Several patsies don't pan out because they have iron-clad alibis, but this doesn't stop our unscrupulous protagonists from trying to set them up. They bring them into an interrogation room and slide the murder weapon across the desk at them and these poor fools catch the gun and wind up handling. One examines the revolver in detail and then cleverly wipes it clean and sends it sliding back at the cops. Eventually, DaVinci settles on a street bum. No sooner has Joe Doe (Dennis Quaid of "The Rookie") been arrested than it turns out that he is a rich man thought dead for seven years. It seems that William Daine McCall, son of the founder of a major telecommunication corporation, was a celebrated surgeon who stepped out on his wife with a nurse. An argument between McCall and his wife prompted her to fly into hysterics, enough so to take their two kids and leave their home. Tragically, about a mile from home, the wife and children died in a car accident and McCall goes on a bender. Meanwhile, things keep getting worse for our protagonists. They enlist the aid of a stripper named Cynthia Webb (Lela Rochon of "Waiting to Exhale") as an eyewitness. It seems that DaVinci is banging her on the side when he is sleeping with his wife. Cynthia buckles in court, however, when defense attorney Arthur Baylor (James Earl Jones of "Clean Slate") tears up her contrived story under careful cross-examination, and she admits to perjury. Pretty soon the relationship between DaVinci and Rodriguez begins to deteriorate because Rodriguez lacks DaVinci's cold, calculating nerve to kill people without a qualm.James Belushi of "Mr. Destiny" plays an out-and-out villain here in a change-of-pace casting. He invests his character with more depth than you would normally associate with him. At times, his performance is so charismatic that you want evil to triumph. In his final screen appearance, the late rapper Tupac Shakur shows that his artistry will be missed as much by music enthusiasts as moviegoers.Writer & director Jim Kouf has breathed new life into a routine plot by standing it on its head. Half of the fun of "Gang Related" is watching DaVinci and Rodriguez dig themselves deeper the more that they try to dig themselves out of disaster. Usually, in a movie like "Gang Related," the heroes are the guys who are in trouble, but neither DaVinci nor Rodriguez qualify as heroes. They only character with any shred of integrity here is Cynthia. When she commits perjury, she refuses to divulge the identities of her cohorts. That's what makes Kouf's police thriller different and that difference might alienate orthodox crime movie junkies who need a hero to cheer.

bob the moo Detectives Divinci and Rodriguez are crooked cops involved in dealing drugs and murdering the competition. When one of their victims turns out to be an undercover DEA agent, they are put on the case to find the murderer. With DEA agent Richard Simms desperate to get the killer, Divinci and Rodriguez realize that they have to frame someone else for the crime. Settling on homeless man 'Joe', they give him drink, get him to sign a statement and falsify the evidence to make a strong enough case to convict.I had half wanted to see this film for a few years simply because I am keen to take the few chances I have to try see Tupac acting – for me he was the saviour of Poetic Justice and he is much better than the vast majority of the hip hop 'actors' we have seen recently. The plot here is pretty much a standard thriller plot based around two dirty cops and, although it lacks real flair or imagination, it still manages to do its job and be an enjoyable and occasionally quite gritty little thriller. It could have done with a greater sense of tension though, for the majority of the time it merely unfolds as opposed to being fast paced or very exciting but it is still an enjoyable enough little film even if it pretty much goes where you expect it to.The cast is a big factor in making this film more interesting and making it rise above the other genre films that it will be competing with on the bottom shelf. Belushi has been in more than his fair share of sh*t video thrillers but here he is actually quite good and seems comfortable with material that, although not great, is certainly nowhere near the low level that he is getting used to. In his last film, Tupac is great and he should be a role model for all hip hop stars who want to act – even just in the choice of role he gives a great example – can you imagine many other rappers playing a corrupt cop with as little glamour as Tupac had? Snoop is a fine example, his last few roles have been versions of the caricature he plays in his music and many other rappers do the same – trading on their image rather than acting. Tupac is far from his gangsta image and he delivers a very down to earth performance – as with several other of his films he made this better by his presence. The gorgeous Lela Rochon is given an eye candy role at the start but she is able enough to make a good performance out of it (as well as having a body and looks to die for!). The smaller roles add the feeling of cast depth even if some of them add little else. Quaid for example has so little to do you wonder why he bothered – he feels like he should be a bigger part of the film but he isn't. For the opposite reason Jones, Cole and Paymer are all quite good because they are minor roles and they just feel like quality padding.Overall this is not a particularly earth shattering thriller but it does its job well enough and I found it pretty enjoyable. A well-known cast certainly helps to make the material rise slightly above the rest of its genre but it is a great performance by Tupac in a different role that made it for me; if only other rappers were less afraid of their image when making role choices then we may not be experiencing a wave of awful blaxploitation films all over again.