If this year's movies continue on the same path, you probably won't be able to count on your hands the number of good cop/bad cop movies released. First "Narc," and now "Dark Blue" and it's only February.
"Dark Blue" is not nearly as fresh as "Narc" (and "Narc" was not all that fresh) but it does manage to pull off some difficult tasks.
Kurt Russell is quite good as the no-holds-barred Sgt. Eldon Perry, the strong arm for the highly corrupt Chief Van Meter (Brendan Gleeson), who uses his status as a means of lining his pockets by sanctioning parolees to commit violent robberies.
Eldon is the center of this character drama. In the beginning, he seems a man without a heart. Later we at least get a feel for what drives him. He's an L.A. cop in 1992 as the Rodney King trials are taking place. His mission is not to collar criminals, but to rid the world of them. He's quick to shoot and always has a spare weapon on hand in case the criminal happens to be unarmed. He uses blackmail to get falsified police records, plants kinky photos in a rival cop's mailbox addressed to his wife and trades police policy for brute force.
Eldon instills these values in his new partner, good-hearted rookie Bobby Keogh (Scott Speedman, a young hotshot eager to impress). With Eldon breathing down his neck, Bobby gets a firsthand look at how things are done as a suspect begs for life and the elder cop won't stop screaming "shoot him."
Speedman, a relative newcomer to film, plays Bobby with an undeniable intensity as he descends from hero cop to hired thug. His performance is a signal to watch him, because with the right role, Speedman could rocket into leading-man status.
Somewhere in the mix "Dark Blue" tapers off into something between dull and intriguing.
As Bobby and Eldon investigate a botched robbery that left four folks dead we see the exciting parts (they find a very mutilated body in the fridge) as well as the boring grunt stuff (woo hoo, who doesn't love to watch cops do paperwork). With Russell screaming and flailing his way through almost every scene, it is fairly watchable, but it is all a little stale.
When it is on, though, it's really on. Russell delivers a great deal of intensity as a cop conflicted between what is right and what his orders are. Scenes that directly showcase Eldon's evil deeds, particularly ones in which he is adamant about the necessity of killing, are grating. A car chase through the battle zone that was the L.A. riots is a set piece worth remembering as cars zip through hordes of looters who stop beating people in the streets to throw bricks through windshields.
The biggest disappointment of "Dark Blue" is the under-use of Ving Rhames. Playing Deputy Chief Holland, striving to become the first black police chief in L.A., Rhames holds his usual intensity for the few scenes he is interjected into. The movie would have gone on without him. It seems he is there in order to have another recognizable name on the poster next to Russell, which is a shame.
"Dark Blue" treads on very familiar ground. Credit some of that to novelist James Elroy, who wrote the story. Much like the writer's "L.A. Confidential," "Dark Blue" is a story of horribly dirty cops doing extremely dirty things while blinded by a strange sense of justice.
"L.A. Confidential" was a great movie. With its tired story and weighted-down feel, "Dark Blue" is just OK.
If you liked this, you may also like: "L.A. Confidential," an old-school corrupt cop drama that manages to do everything right.
Suggested viewing: This is a good time-wastin' flick. It lasts two hours, doesn't require much thinking and is easily forgotten.
