Yet Shakur is the least compelling player in Gang Related, writer/director Jim Kouf's tale of deception, betrayal, twists, and counter-twists. The movie is dominated by James Belushi, who plays a crooked cop masterminding a profitable scam. Belushi and his partner, Shakur, make a living ripping off drug dealers and pocketing their funds; they then kill the dealers and make the hits look like gang-related homicides. The comfortable situation changes, however, when Belushi unknowingly kills an undercover agent. To quote Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, things fall apart.

Shakur spends roughly half his screen time looking dazed, expressing guilt and anguish, or asking Belushi, "What the hell are we going to do now?" Meanwhile, the duo's attempt at evidence manipulation unravels at top speed, as does Kouf's script, which plants plenty of contrived details, such as Shakur's gambling habit, for convenient later use. The team's relationship unfolds, evolves, then disintegrates. Belushi becomes steadily more despicable, while Shakur earns some sympathy as the "good cop" unable to save his friend--or himself.

While Gang Related is eons superior to Kouf's horrendous script for Stakeout, the plotting is more convoluted than clever. The legal machinations (including James Earl Jones as a sort of African American F. Lee Bailey in his prime) provide entertaining diversions, but the movie never makes up its mind whether it's satirizing the criminal-justice system, criticizing police corruption, or dismissing the entire apparatus as unsalvageable. There are also some elements that just don't work, particularly a running bit in which the duo steals similar guns from various homicides, then attempts to return them to the right crimes.

Lela Rochon's role as Belushi's girlfriend is equally skewed; she lurches from unwilling coconspirator to reluctant witness to the heroine who helps justice (such as it is) prevail. The decision to pair her romantically with Belushi rather than Shakur might have been provocative if Kouf had opted to explore cultural or political differences, or even to generate some reasons for their union beyond simple financial compensation. Instead, this is color-blind casting at its worst; both Rochon's and Shakur's roles are written in a bland, generic manner that enables anyone of any color or ethnicity to be equally murky.