It may be a cruel twist of fate but Tupac Shakur's career has gone from strength to strength since he was shot dead in Las Vegas back in 1996. The rapper's back catalogue has gone multi-platinum, his previous movie Gridlock'd won him, and Tim Roth, rave reviews, and there are enough conspiracy theories surrounding his untimely death to guarantee immediate icon status. No surprise, then, that Tupac's final performance, recorded in this absorbing but occasionally uneven cop thriller, casts a dark and prophetic pall over the entire movie. In addition to the leads, as the evidence mounts up, so too does the stellar supporting cast - including Dennis Quaid as a wino tagged for the killing and James Earl Jones as a hotshot defence lawyer.
Gang Related is a formidable and compelling drama with a very dark heart. Both Shakur and Belushi - the latter as good as he was in Oliver Stone's Salvador - play a contrasting pair of totally mean-spirited cops with little chance of salvation. Belushi does the body histrionics, Shakur the facial emotions.