BY DARLENE DONLOE

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Antoine Fuqua has an eye for developing dark, brooding characters and marrying them to an equally shadowy story.

One of his best films is the intense cop-gone-bad drama, “Training Day,” which helped its star, Denzel Washington, win an Academy Award.

This week, Fuqua’s latest cop installation “Brooklyn’s Finest,” hits theaters with an all-star cast that includes Don Cheadle, Wesley Snipes, Ethan Hawke, Richard Gere and Ellen Barkin.

The film intertwines three storylines — each focusing on the fractured life of a Brooklyn cop. It unveils what actually goes on behind the badge and inside the life of, in this case, the man wearing it.

These cops, played by Cheadle, Hawke and Gere, are confronted with situations that test their mettle, values and moral codes daily. And, as in life, they don’t always make the right decisions, which can result in catastrophic consequences. A bad cop with a gun and on a power trip is as dangerous as they come.

This isn’t a nice film. In fact, it’s disturbing in its violent authenticity. One of the best things about the drama is how Fuqua not only shows cops’ strengths, but also reveals their vulnerabilities and flaws.

There are good cops, bad cops and even worse cops. There are drugs, women and bad streets with bad people. And, in this movie, even if you come out on top, you don’t win.

Cheadle, once again, turns in a sterling performance as Tango, an undercover cop out to bust street hustler Caz, played with flair by Wesley Snipes.

The dial on his acting meter must have broken off on “powerful and bona fide” because Cheadle has yet to falter in his many portrayals. That’s not to say that all of his movies have been great. However, with Cheadle at the helm, a worthy performance in never far behind. Cheadle is one of those exceptional actors who faithfully delivers memorable and believable characters.

In “Brooklyn’s Finest,” Cheadle must brush past his conscience in order to take down an old friend, played by Snipes. While he wants to do the right thing, his assignment leaves him with an ethical and personal dilemma.

Snipes and Cheadle work well together on camera. It’s like watching two gladiators going toe-to-toe.

Although Snipes’ drug kingpin performance is a throwback to “New Jack City,” the role works for him.

It doesn’t get any better than Hawke. What a performance. He’s like a walking time bomb playing Sal in this volatile action film. Sal is a risk-taking, fearless cop with a huge financial problem. He’ll literally do anything to get money to move his family into a new home.

The wear and tear Hawke displays on his face, coupled with his deflated gait, presents a character that is at his wits’ end.

Unfortunately, Gere is woefully miscast as Eddie, a uniformed officer with only a week left until retirement. He has a bad attitude, a kind of death wish and no desire to show a new recruit the ropes. He just wants out — and now. However, Gere doesn’t deliver. There is no believability and scarce authenticity to his portrayal of this seasoned street-wise cop. His one-note facial expression fails to communicate his angst.

“Brooklyn’s Finest” is not the first of it kind. In fact, it follows in a long line of films that have successfully shown the good-cop, bad-cop, bad-people scenario.

But, to his credit, Fuqua (“The Shooter,” “Tears of the Sun”) knows what he’s doing. He injects his own urban spin. He includes the mean streets of the city as yet another character in the film. The streets are gray and smoky and, no doubt, truly have “an expiration date.”

“Brooklyn’s Finest” is set up to have all three cops, who have nothing to do with each other throughout the film, converge at one brutal crime scene for an incredible climax.

The ending of this film is brilliant.

“Brooklyn’s Finest” (Overture Films and Millennium Films), directed by Fuqua and written by Michael C. Martin, stars Cheadle, Snipes, Hawke, Gere, Vincent D’Onofrio, Will Patton and Ellen Barkin.

“Brooklyn’s Finest” opens nationwide March 5. It’s Rated R for bloody violence throughout, strong sexuality, nudity, drug content and pervasive language. Running time: 125 minutes.

On the Donloe Scale, D (don’t bother), O (oh, no), N (needs work), L (likable), O (Outstanding) and E (exquisite), “Brooklyn’s Finest” gets an L (Likable).

BY MARILYNN MARCHIONE

AP MEDICAL WRITER

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Eating a lot of fat, especially the kind that’s in cookies and pastries, can significantly raise the risk of stroke for women over 50, a large new study finds.

The new study is the largest to look at stroke risk in women and across all types of fat. It showed a clear trend: Those who ate the most fat had a 44 percent higher risk of the most common type of stroke compared to those who ate the least.

“It’s a tremendous increase that is potentially avoidable,” said Dr. Emil Matarese, stroke chief at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, Pa. “What’s bad for the heart is bad for the brain.”

He reviewed but did not help conduct the research, which was presented Feb. 24 at an American Stroke Association conference. It involved 87,230 participants in the Women’s Health Initiative, a federally funded study best known for revealing health risks from taking hormone pills for menopause symptoms.

Before menopause, women traditionally have had less risk of stroke than similarly aged men, although this is changing as women increasingly battle obesity and other health problems.

After menopause, the risk rises and the gender advantage disappears, said Dr. Ka He, a nutrition specialist and senior author of the study from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

He and another researcher, Sirin Yaemsiri, wanted to see whether dietary fat affected the odds.

Participants in the study had filled out detailed surveys on their diets when they enrolled, at ages 50 to 79. Researchers put them into four groups based on how much fat they ate, and looked about seven years later to see how many had suffered a stroke caused by clogged blood vessels supplying the brain — the most common kind.

There were 288 strokes in the group of women who consumed the most fat each day (95 grams) versus 249 strokes in the group eating the least fat (25 grams), Yaemsiri told the conference.

After taking into account other factors that affect stroke risks — weight, race, smoking, exercise and use of alcohol, aspirin or hormone pills — researchers concluded that women who ate the most fat had a 44 percent greater risk of stroke.

They also found a 30 percent greater risk of stroke among women eating the most trans fat, which is common in stick margarine, fried foods, crackers and cookies.

“We need to look at the labels on the foods we buy,” because many of these fats are hidden in baked goods and people are not aware of how much they’re consuming, Matarese said. “This is a simple way that any woman, especially postmenopausal women, can improve their health. Simply avoiding fried foods is a big one.”

The American Heart Association recommends limiting fat to less than 25 to 35 percent of total calories, and trans fat to less than 1 percent. The healthiest fats come from nuts, seeds, fish and vegetable oils.

“We don’t do a good enough job of emphasizing the importance of a good diet,” said Dr. Lee Schwamm, a stroke specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Pediatricians in particular need to address the risk for chubby kids.

“If you don’t change their patterns and problems in childhood, you’re really looking at a lifetime of obesity,” he said.

On the Net: Stroke information: www.strokeassociation.org.