Gang Related (1997)
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56% of critics liked it
(16 reviews) -
71% of users liked it
(8,691 ratings)
A pair of corrupt police officers discover the hard way that crime really doesn't pay in this action drama. Divinci (James Belushi) and Rodriguez (Tupac Shakur) are two New York undercover cops with serious money problems: Rodriguez owes a huge gambling debt, while Divinci wants to retire to… More A pair of corrupt police officers discover the hard way that crime really doesn't pay in this action drama. Divinci (James Belushi) and Rodriguez (Tupac Shakur) are two New York undercover cops with serious money problems: Rodriguez owes a huge gambling debt, while Divinci wants to retire to Hawaii but lacks the cash. To stretch their paychecks, the partners pose as drug dealers, using narcotics confiscated as evidence; they sell the dope, and after receiving payment, they kill the buyers in carefully arranged drive-by shootings, always collecting the drugs afterward so that they can be sold again. The men try to morally justify their actions by claiming that they only kill people who need to be taken off the street anyway. Divinci's girlfriend, an exotic dancer named Cynthia (Lela Rochon), helps set the cops up with their latest victim, but after they've made the transaction, Divinci and Rodriguez discover the tables have been turned -- the purchaser is actually an undercover DEA agent. The DEA man winds up dead, and Divinci and Rodriguez are assigned to investigate the killing. Needing a fall guy, they try to frame a homeless man for the murder, but before long, their web of deception begins to collapse like a house of cards. Gang Related was the final film completed by rapper-turned-actor Tupac Shakur; he himself was the victim of a still-unsolved shooting in Las Vegas 13 months before the film was released. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Directed By
- Jim Kouf
- Written By
- Jim Kouf
- Genres
- Drama, Action & Adventure, Mystery & Suspense
- In Theaters
- Oct 8, 1997 Wide
- Studio
- MGM Home Entertainment
Critic Reviews
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David Noh, Film Journal International
Writer-director Jim Kouf crams the screen with enough incident, coincidence and characters to keep you watching.
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Jeffrey Westhoff, Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)
I won't pretend to know anything about Shakur's music, but his death robbed filmgoers of an actor who only began to show his talent.
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Frank Ochieng, TheWorldJournal.com
An ambitious but instantly generic urban crime drama that conjures up the usual assortment of cliched' streetwise grittiness
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Luke Y. Thompson, New Times
Tupac was a very promising actor -- it's a shame this was the kind of film he usually wound up in.
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James Sanford, Kalamazoo Gazette
There are several clever twists in the story, though Kouf never quite manages to make much of it seem credible.
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Cast
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James Belushi
as Divinci
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Tupac Shakur
as Rodriguez
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Lela Rochon
as Cynthia
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Dennis Quaid
as William
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James Earl Jones
as Arthur Baylor
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David Paymer
as Elliot Goff
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Wendy Crewson
as Helen Eden
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Gary Cole
as Richard Simms
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Terrence 'T.C.' Carson
as Manny Ladrew
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Brad Greenquist
as Richard Stein
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James Handy
as Captain Henderson
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Kool Moe Dee
as Lionel Hudd
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Victor Love
as Hooper
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Robert La Sardo
as Sarkasian
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Perry Anzilotti
as Vic
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Gregory Scott Cummins
as Clyde
