Gang Related Review
by James Sanford (jasanfor AT MCI2000 DOT com)January 19th, 1998
GANG RELATED
Directed by Jim Kouf
"Gang Related" is destined to go down in history as the final film of rapper-actor Tupac Shakur, and it's not a disgraceful send-off. In fact, Shakur's nicely modulated performance looks all the better alongside the rampant overplaying of co-stars James Belushi, Lela Rochon and Wendy Crewson, all of whom seem to think in order to register on screen you have to scream a lot of profanities and mug wildly.
A better director might have kept them under control, but "Gang Related" comes from Jim Kouf, better known for his screenplay for "Stakeout" than for his direction of such sorry efforts as "Disorganized Crime." Typically, Kouf's script for "Gang" is sturdier than his scene-setting. Shakur and Belushi play amoral, money-hungry cops who've devised a scheme to get rich quick by bumping off drug-dealers and stealing their money. It seems like a good idea, since the murders can be easily disguised as gang related revenge killings that no one else in the department will bother putting in overtime to investigate.
But as fate would have it, they manage to rub out a DEA agent who's working undercover as a cocaine supplier, leading to all manner of disaster. Desperate to cover their bloody tracks, Belushi and Shakur try to frame a homeless vagrant (Dennis Quaid, who's unrecognizable and terrific) for the killing by planting evidence and conning Belushi's girlfriend (Rochon) into pretending to have witnessed the shooting. Nothing goes as planned, however, and the duo find themselves piling lie upon lie until the whole jerry-rigged situation threatens to tumble down on their heads.
There are several clever twists in the story, though Kouf never quite manages to make much of it seem credible. Perhaps he shouldn't have bothered trying: There's a strong undercurrent of black comedy in the screenplay that should have been brought to the forefront. Instead, Kouf---like his heroes---keeps pushing the limits, wrapping the tale up with a "four months later" epilogue that aims for irony and fails badly.
Fans of Shakur will probably be pleased to have one more opportunity to watch him working. Fans of movies will be relieved to hear the overintense Belushi has temporarily deserted the silver screen for the TV screen. At least it will be easier to turn him off now.
James Sanford
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
