Gang Related

What starts out as a fascinating, if disturbing idea quickly unravels in "Gang Related," the story of a pair of police partners who take the law into their own hands.

Actually, the basic idea isn't new — especially to anyone who recalls the second "Dirty Harry" movie, "Magnum Force," which had motorcycle cops assassinating mobsters.

In this case, the focus is on a pair of plainclothes homicide detectives — one a loud and obnoxious slob (James Belushi) and the other a low-key, dapper compulsive gambler (Tupac Shakur in his last film role).

As the film opens, they set up a drug dealer by selling him cocaine, with assistance from a stripper-hooker (Lela Rochon). They then follow the dealer's car, drive along side and Belushi pops him.

The next day, after splitting the money they collected from the dealer, Belushi returns the drugs and gun to the police station's evidence room. And soon we discover that they've done this nine times before. "It's taking out the garbage," Belushi reasons. Besides, the money helps — Belushi is planning a move to the tropics and Shakur has heavy gambling debts to pay off.

The shock comes when they are informed that the drug dealer they killed was actually an undercover DEA agent! Shakur is thunderstruck, but all Belushi can think about is covering their tracks.

So they hit the streets to find a patsy, and Belushi eventually pins all the evidence on a drunken homeless man (Dennis Quaid) he finds living near Rochon's apartment.

What follows is a series of coincidences and "clever" twists that become so convoluted and implausible that the final quarter prompts a mother lode of unintended laughter.

It doesn't help that Belushi and Shakur are shown bickering loudly about the events that have enveloped them where anyone could overhear their conversation — including in the police station and on the steps of the courthouse!

And the stunt casting of Quaid as a tragic homeless man, complete with a ridiculously full beard he apparently borrowed from Tom Berenger's "Gettysburg" outfit, works against the film.

Even James Earl Jones, as a famous defense attorney who steps in to reveal one of the film's many ludicrous plot twists, can't help the proceedings here.

On the other hand, maybe I took this film too seriously. Maybe it's meant to be a farce. If I really believed that to be the case, I'd up the ante on the star rating above, because I laughed a lot.

"Gang Related" is rated R for considerable violence, nudity, profanity and vulgarity.