I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

When released this film didn't garner much attention. It did decent business at the box office but nothing to brag about. With the passing of Tupac Shakur interest increased and fans clamored for any and all things Tupac. Now the film makes its way to blu-ray courtesy of Olive Video.Det. Frank Divinci and Det. Rodriguez (James Belushi and Tupac) are two corrupt cops more interested in making money than in doing their jobs. This isn't to say they can't get the job done that they're paid to do, they are good at finding bad guys. But becoming bad guys they find themselves in more trouble than expected.The two have stolen drugs, sold them, took the money from their mark and then killed him. Who would notice a dead drug dealer, especially if the detectives investigating the killing were these two cops? Problems arise when their latest mark turns out to be an undercover DEA agent.Given the job of finding the killer the pair come upon a homeless man (Dennis Quaid) and pin the rap on him. They even get Frank's girlfriend (Lela Rochon) to testify that she saw him do it. But their plan starts to unravel on several levels. Rochon begins to have second doubts about what she is doing. Worse yet it turns out that Quaid is actually a wealthy businessman who went missing some years ago. His lawyers turn up to rescue him and with that everything begins to fall apart. As the duo tries to figure out what to do clues to the real killer begin to mount.What makes the movie interesting is that it is told from their perspective, two corrupt cops as opposed to a mainstream hero trying to solve the mystery. Instead we have the reverse with two killers who have the means to cover their trail easily but who create so many mistakes that their tension over what to do next becomes ours as well.It's difficult to sympathize with these two main characters but before the movie ends you find yourself wondering if perhaps they will do the right thing. Therein lies much of the tension found in the film. That desire to make atonement for past indiscretions while at the same time knowing it will results in the loss of your freedom and perhaps the loss of your life makes you wonder if either is willing to go through with it. At the same time you wonder if they will indeed get away with it all.Tupac showed that he had a career ahead of him as an actor with a meaty role like this. He does a fantastic job and is quite believable in the part. It's a shame he never had the opportunity. I've said for years that Belushi was a better actor than people have given him credit for. He started off in the shadow of his older brother John and then was pushed into comedic roles only for a time. His handling of dramatic roles showed he could do both.While it's nice that Olive has released the film on blu-ray for fans of the film and of Tupac they once again show no effort to present anything but the movie itself. Extras are non-existent. As they move forward let's hope more of their releases see some effort on their part for things that some would enjoy. In the meantime at least the film is offered in a well done format with a nice print to work from. If you enjoy gritty cop dramas then you're bound to enjoy this one.

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.

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.

Gang Related had me a bit exicted back in 97 it was the last movie performance of Tupac and he's the only good thing in this slow paced and somewhat predictable movie. James Belushi makes a horrible bad guy and Dennis Quaid is watsed. See this one just for Shakur's performance.