Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Today's Movie: Dark Blue


Directed by Ron Shelton, (who has directed an number of films I really like, most notably 1988's Bull Durham and 1989's Blaze) and starring the always likable Kurt Russell, 2002's Dark Blue is a movie right up my alley. 

Set in Los Angeles in 1992, during the days leading up to the verdict in the Rodney King trial, the movie is a thriller about corruption at every level of the L.A.P.D. Kurt Russell is fantastic in the film as Sergeant Eldon Perry, a seasoned officer who is teaching his young partner Bobby (played by Scott Speedman) how to plant evidence, lie on reports, and cover up cold-blooded murders. Of course a film about a bad bunch of cops usually has to have a good cop who wants to weed out the corruption and in this movie that role is played by Ving Rhames. I really like Rhames in most of his movies but one of the shortcomings of this film is that he just isn't given much to do. It's a nearly 2hr film with only about 80-90 minutes worth of story and I personally think it would've benefited from removing the subplot about Perry's failing marriage, because that never really goes anywhere, and instead ramp up tensions between the good cops and bad.

 Overall, I enjoyed this one. It does have it's flaws but I'll definitely end up watching it again and I recommend checking it out. 
3.5 out of 5 

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