Dark Blue | | Cast : | Kurt Russell, Scott Speedman, Ving Rhames | | Director : | Ron Shelton | | Studio : | MGM/UA Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | February 21, 2003 | | DVD Released Date : | June 24, 2003 | | Language : | Spanish (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 22, 2005 | | Summary | Trite, Predictable, Simplistic....overall a Disappointment | Content
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As you can tell by the header, I was disappointed by this movie. Since Kurt Russell plays the lead, I should not have been surprised, because the parts he plays are generally rather predictable and simplistic (Tango & Cash, Snake Plisskin, etc). I just don't picture Kurt as lead actor in a gritty, realistic drama...but, eternally the optimist, I hoped that this might be the exception. It wasn't.
The story involves two LA detectives, one a grizzled and thoroughly corrupt veteran (Russell) and the other a somewhat principled but weak-willed and easily manipulated rookie, Bobby Keough (Scott Speedman). Russell's character (Eldon Perry) is controlled and protected by an exceedingly corrupt superior officer, Jack Van Meter (nicely played by Brendan Gleeson), who uses Perry to further his profitable and flagrantly illegal interests.
If you have ever watched "The Shield" on FX cable network then you will be familiar with this general setup....a morally ambiguous detective is used to further his superior's agenda.....but here is the problem: The Shield (a television series) is vastly superior in every way: plot, acting, characterization, dialog, direction, etc. to this feature film. It is like comparing filet mignon to cheap hamburger. Once you see a quality, nuanced drama like The Shield, this movie and all like it are rendered unwatchable.
Characters in Dark Blue are caricatures with almost no depth. They guzzle whiskey and laugh about their flagrant crimes. The plot and dialog are contrived and unrealistic. There is no subtlety....no intellectually stimulating complexity. Eldon always does exactly as he is told: if mass-murdering thugs (employed and protected by his superior) are to be sheltered from arrest, simply go out and murder a couple of stray ex-cons and let them take the rap (posthumously) for the real criminals. Never mind that neither of the ex-cons is even close to being a plausible suspect. No one would be fooled by this ruse, except perhaps in this mindless movie.
Eldon gets his partner Keough to perform one of the cold-blooded murders ordered by Van Meter, and thus begins their downfall, because Keough has a spontaneous change of heart and suddenly cannot accept the guilt of his actions. One minute he is guzzling whiskey with his cronies and laughing about lying to a shooting review board, and the next he is overwrought with guilt. Not at all likely in real life, but it suits the plot.
Things gets even sillier when the partner (Speedman) then teams up with the assistant chief's (Ving Rhames) predictably beautiful ex-mistress (Michael Michelle) to try to arrest the real thugs and use them to bring down the whole perverted mess. Heaven forbid that he simply come forth and provide evidence to accomplish this end. What follows is a lengthy, confused, and poorly choreographed pursuit of the thugs and a predictable gun battle with equally predictable outcome.
The ultimate farce, however, is reserved for Eldon himself, who drives around South Central Los Angeles during the peak of the Rodney King riots trying to find and arrest a black suspect....which he easily accomplishes....and then drives away without a scratch. This reaches the level of surrealistic absurdity and is an insult to the true horror of the riots.
Equally unconvincing is Eldon's spontaneous change of heart at the end of the movie, during his promotion ceremony (such irony), when he delivers a rambling, preposterous and unconvincing indictment of his father, himself, and his evil superior....which is simplistically and immediately accepted (in true movie fashion) by all who hear it, and who then immediately jump to arrest and condemn the naughty superior. This is silly, implausible, and an insult to any viewer above the age (and maturity) of a 10-year old. Jump up at your next promotion ceremony and deliver a rambling condemnation of your superior and see what happens. This type of naive nonsense occurs in only one place: the movies....bad ones.
If you were thrilled by Tango & Cash, and thought Snake Plissken was a brilliantly-portrayed anti-hero, then by all means hit the "Buy It Now" button for this DVD. But, if you want complexity, subtlety, realism, plausibility, and infinitely superior acting, plot, characterization, and direction....do yourself a huge favor and use your money to either subscribe to FX on cable, or buy/rent DVD's of The Shield series....filet mignon is always better than cheap hamburger. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 16, 2005 | | Summary | Very Underrated. See it! | Content
| While I perfectly understand all of the comparisons to Training Day, let it be known that Dark Blue has something different to offer. Firstly, Kurt Russell gives another bravura performance as a crooked and racsist cop in the LAPD. Despite the character's obvious flaws, Russell brings an undenieable compassion to him. There's a scene when he tells a reporter looking for a quote that the media needs to stop presenting criminals as victims, but instead as the pigs that they are. He's correct.
Ron Shelton's gritty direction will has the audience really feeling like they're there in the streets with cops, amid all the violence and corruption. What's especially good about this film is the way they filmmakers handle the last thirty minutes, when the riots begin and the story takes a very different and unexpected turn. The end is not what I predicted and thank God. See this for the whole package and don't be swayed by the negative reviews. Russell's still got it! |
| Rating | | | Date | July 28, 2005 | | Summary | I love it when a pig goes down... | Content
| Great to see a movie that portrays the racism that pervades police departments across this good ole USA. It's interesting that this movie came out around the same time frame as Training Day and was damn near swept under the rug and straight to DVD, but Denzel gets an Oscar for playing a criminal cop. Like Arsenio used to say...Things that make you go Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 24, 2005 | | Summary | KURT RUSSELL IS (STILL) A VERY STRONG ACTOR!!! GO KURT!!! | Content
| THIS IS A DVD THAT I THOUGHT WAS DATED. NOT! IT WAS MADE IN 2002/3, AND DESERVES WIDE VIEWING. I THOUGHT I MAY HAVE SEEN THE TITLE, BUT I HAD NOT. IT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH OTHER PREVIOUS SIMILAR TITLES. DONT PASS THIS BY, IT IS GRITTY AND ARTISTICALLY REALISTIC. THE GRIT OF SOUTH CENTRAL L.A., IS AUTHENTIC AND HAS ITS OWN PARTICULAR BIG CITY BEAUTY OF A SLUM AREA. SHARE THIS DVD OR TITLE WITH FRIENDS....IT IS WELL WORTH THE RIDE IN A BLACK AND WHITE. IT IS SIMILAR TO "THE SHIELD" ON FX, BUT DEALS WITH THE RODNEY KING RIOTS IN L.A., AS A BACKDROP. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 20, 2005 | | Summary | very good movie | Content
| I liked the movie very much, and then I read reviews and somebody mentioned that LA Confidential is a better movie. We went out to rent it...what a joke...several times during that movie we just had to look at ourselves with confused looks and say "What???".
Seriously, I cannot imagine what people find wrong with this movie, but I guess to each his own. One idiot even said that "Edge" with Hopkins is one of the worst movies he's seen...Give me a break...even 8MM...got bad reviews from some people...can anyone please explain that to me...are we really all that different??? |
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