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Dark Blue (2002)

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101 comments in total

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30 out of 34 people found the following comment useful :-
The Other Side of the Police Department and Justice System, With Corruption in All Levels, 19 February 2005

Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In 1992, in Los Angeles, Homicide Detective Eldon Perry (Kurt Russell) is a member of the third generation of detectives in the Los Angeles Police Department. His partner is the rookie Bobby Keough (Scott Speedman), the nephew of the Chief of the Department Jack Van Meter (Breendan Gleeson), one of the best friends of Eldon's father. Eldon follows his orders without questioning, being protected by his superior, when interrogated by the Internal Affairs. Jack and Eldon do not have ethics, using intimidation, corruption and blackmail to achieve their targets and defeat their enemies. However, Assistant Chief Holland (Ving Rhames) is a honest officer, who fights against the corruption in the department and wants to destroy Jack and Elson. Bobby does not fit well in such a corrupted environment and is in love with Sargent Beth Williamson (Michael Michele), who works with Holland and had a love affair with him five years before. When four persons are executed in a Corean store by two criminals protected by Jack, Eldon and Bobby are in charge to find two scapegoats to take the blame. Meanwhile, tension is increasing on the streets of Los Angeles due to the trial of four white officers, who spanked the black motorist Rodney King. Having the backdrop of the real case of Rodney King, and consequent violence on the streets of LA after the absolving of the four white officers responsible for his aggression, and many plot points, "Dark Blue" is a very different, realistic and dramatic police story. Themes like racism, police excessive (or brutal) use of force for intimidation, corruption, blackmail, violent crimes, redemption etc. are presented in this film. The corruption in all levels of the police department and the justice system is explored in this movie. Although being in Los Angeles, it could be in most of the police departments of different nations. The performance of Kurt Russell is once again amazing, in the role of a man who goes to hell, destroying his personal and professional life in all the aspects, and looking for redemption in the end. "Dark Blue" is a highly recommended movie. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Face Oculta da Lei" ("The Hidden Face of the Law")

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24 out of 28 people found the following comment useful :-
A very good thriller, 8 February 2004
Author: m0rg16 from Sweden

Kurt Russel and Scott Speedman star in this this thriller about an elderly cop, named Eldon (Russel) who is corrupt, yet thinks what he does is for the greater good. His younger partner, named Bobby(Speedman) is new on the force, and he's taking on his partners way of being a cop. While Eldon and Bobby are out doing their 'thing', a robbery occurs. Several people are left dead, and its up to Eldon and Bobby to solve the case, in their own way.

The story goes on from there, and takes several unexpected turns, and proves to be highly entertaining, just like the rest of the movie. Kurt Russel's acting is top-notch, but unfortunetly Scott Speedman doesn't really deliver a very striking performance. But other than Speedman's lacking acting skills, the movie is very good. The story keeps you on the edge of your seat, and there are several subplots that all come together in the end, giving us an ending which leaves us all satisfied.

Now, this is definetly not an action movie. Instead it relies on its story and the characters, and that's a very good move by the director. But there are still moments where we are in awe of the movie, such as the riot scenes. Scenes of absolute anarchy.

All in all, a very good movie. Recommended to all who wants a good story to sit back and enjoy. 8/10

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18 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
Solid cop thriller despite not really getting much from the backdrop, 1 January 2004
Author: bob the moo from Birmingham, UK

As the trial of the officers accused of beating Rodney King occurs in the background, LA sits on a knife's edge of tension. Meanwhile hard-line cop Eldon Perry celebrates his partner being cleared of operating outside of procedure and the pair go back to work. When they are put on a robbery homicide case all the evidence points to a couple of informants used by Captain Jack Van Meter, however he assures them it wasn't them and tells them to find someone else to pin it on. However Perry's partner Bobby Keough has a change of heart and the cracks start to show as LA bursts into flames.

This film was slightly over-hyped when it came out. I agree that it is a solid cop thriller that rises above recent offerings from the genre but to give it as much praise as it garnered at the time is to give it more than it deserves. The basic plot is on two levels. On the first level the film is about police corruption and sees a corrupt house of cards teetering on the brink of collapse. This bit works well and the cop thriller element works well even if it treads familiar ground. The second level is the background of the Rodney King trial and the LA riots. This aspect is very much wallpaper and I didn't really feel it was necessary for the main narrative to work. At best it complimented the ongoing tensions between community and cops, at worst it distracts from the main thrust.

Russell does give one of his strongest performances in recent years and is not afraid to be an unsympathetic lead character. However the rest of the cast are either not as good or not as well used. Speedman has to carry most of the moral weight of the film and it is clearly too heavy for him and can't do it convincingly. Rhames is simply not used very well and is almost supplementary to requirements. Gleeson is miscast - he is an able actor but the film required him to be a generation older than Perry, in reality they were the same age more or less. Michele is sexy and is reasonably well used for a support character and Kurupt is good even if he is playing the character that he plays daily in his rapper personae.

Overall this was a superior cop thriller that was enjoyable as same. It did a reasonable job looking at the real life issues of corruption in the LAPD but not as well as perhaps other reviews would have led you to believe - it is more a wallpaper or just a theme that is used to prop up the narrative rather than a real good historic look at the time.

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14 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
A superb thriller made with commitment., 3 May 2005

Author: peter-856 from Portsmouth, England

There's not really much to be said about this film: its internal integrity and the obvious commitment of everyone involved speak for themselves. When I think of Kurt Russell I always think of Soldier and Arnie he ain't but, DAMN, he can act when he's given a good script.

The DVD is well worth getting hold of. The documentaries are professional, detail packed and interesting. I like the comment by Cotty Chubb, the producer, who says that the four elements needed for a civil society are jobs, schools, hospitals and police. In many parts of urban America (he says) there are no jobs, the schools are s*i*, they've closed all the hospitals and the police are corrupt. For a foreigner, who has never been able to make sense of the perverse verdict in the trials of those infamous officers, this film shed some light on a very fragile society.

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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Kurt Russell's career high; in ways better than "Training Day", 24 February 2003
Author: george.schmidt (george.schmidt@hbo.com) from fairview, nj

DARK BLUE (2003) ***1/2 Kurt Russell, Scott Speedman, Ving Rhames, Michael Michele, Lola Davidovich, Brendan Gleeson, Jonathan Banks. Russell gives the performance of his career as morally corrupt LA cop Eldin Perry, assigned to a special forces unit, who uses his power to put the screws to the animals he patrols by any means necessary , instructing his rookie partner Speedman , until things come to a bloody head in the shadow of the Rodney King trial. Rhames as the deputy chief of police determined to bring Perry down provides the missing social backbone to this insightfully gritty look at bad cops gone wild. Filmmaker Ron Shelton affectively uses the historic time setting perfectly in capturing the tempest in a teacup that acts as a perfect metaphor for the screenplay written by David Ayer based on James Ellroy's story.

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Good cop or bad cop, all heads will roll!, 13 June 2006

Author: (Vomitron_G) from the Doomed Megalopolis of Blasphemous Technoids

I'm not the biggest fan of police/crime drama's (with or without some action and thrills thrown in the mix). Most of the time (especially the direct-to-DVD ones) those movies are simply below average. DARK BLUE, however, rightfully received a theatrical release. This movie's got a good story to tell (written by James Ellroy), supported by more than decent acting performances. Kurt Russell delivers one of his best performances yet as Eldon Perry, a middle aged unsympathetic loud-mouth cop on the verge of promotion. He doesn't question his orders given by corrupt superiors, and that's how he was able to follow in his father's footsteps and climb the ranks of the LAPD. I haven't seen Scott Speedman in many movies yet, but from the looks of it he's a decent actor too, who holds strong when acting aside Kurt Russell.

Given this is a James Ellroy story, one quickly is led to believe that there are way more corrupt cops out there than good ones. And even the honest ones (in pursuit of justice) have a few skeletons in the closet. All characters have a lot of flesh on their bones, which make them all very interesting. And because of the many fluent dialogues that demand your attention, you tend to forget that all the things going on the way they do, can't last forever. So when things do go wrong, it's a bit of a surprise for who it goes bad and for who it gets even worse.

The whole background story with the lawsuit against the cops who beat up Afro-American Rodney King is cleverly used to stage the 90's setting. And the riots in the street, caused by the decision of the jury near the end of the movie, add a lot to the exciting climax of DARK BLUE. This one's as decent as L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, only, maybe, a bit less intriguing. But still, an excellent movie with solid acting and a good story.

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Well done good cop/bad cop movie..., 21 August 2003

Author: dwpollar from Shoreline, Washington

1st watched 8/21/2003 - 7 out of 10(Dir-Ron Shelton): Well done good cop/bad cop movie that works because the good & the bad are basically caught in the same trap and some of the characters change from one to the other during the film. Kurt Russell's character is one of them that changes. He is bad with a capital `B' in the beginning. He's foul-mouthed, racist and doesn't care much for justice but wants to cover the good guys' behind whenever possible. He is totally believable as this redneck character. His partner is being taught to lie in what they call a `shooting trial' where they question the cop on a convict-shooting to make sure it was the `only' option. The setting for the film is a few days before the `non-guilty' Rodney King verdict in L.A., but this is only a backdrop to the movie's story. There is typical corruption in the police ranks but in this one, the star is involved in the corruption. Without giving away too much of the story, basically the cops are involved in another shooting and the partner decides to tell the truth which leads to other events that bring about the much-hoped-for ending. It's neat the way the filmmaker uses the Rodney King fiasco to blend in with the action of the story which kind of adds a separate element that everyone is quietly following as they do their jobs. The acting, the direction and the story blend together for a very satisfying and watchable movie despite the typical bad cop/good cop genre that the story is based on. Hooray for all involved on this one!!

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Decent Movie, but got too preachy and too much like "The Shield", 25 April 2006

Author: cny_cd from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This was a decent movie, and was (as usual) a great job done by Kurt Russell. Russell plays a L.A. Detective who sometimes blurs the lines between right and wrong. The two problems I had with the film are that (1) It was the exact plot and storyline of "The Shield" television series (and not done nearly as well), and (2) It really was a bit too preachy on matters of racism for my tastes. I think the film oversimplified some of the common stereotypes that people have and should have stuck to entertaining, and not preaching. Overall, it was a very watchable film, with some very good sequences. Five stars out of Ten.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Entertaining film, better than Training Day and Colors, 10 January 2006

Author: PersianPlaya408 from Milpitas, California

Ron Sheltons look at the LAPD during a time of much scandal involving Rodney King is a well-directed cop film. I liked it more than such hits as Training Day which exposed some dirty cops and better than the classic Dennis Hopper film Colors. Dark Blue was realistic in its portrayal of characters and storyline. Shelton goes back to serious direction with this film after making a horrible film titled Hollywood Homicide. Dark Blue is a good action movie. I liked Kurt Russell in the role but Ving Rhames and Brendan Gleesor gave great supporting performances. Scott Speedman did not impress me much and Lolita Davidovich was good eye candy but failed to turn in any fantastic scenes. THis film is entertaining and although a bit flawed its all-in-all has some engaging performances with a good script and good direction. 9/10

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Good LAPD thriller, hopefully exaggerated., 23 December 2005
Author: TxMike from Houston, Tx, USA, Earth

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

It was the early 1990s and the 4 cops whose beating of Rodney King was caught on tape and broadcast everywhere, were on trial in Simi Valley just north of Los Angeles. Kurt Russell plays Eldon Perry, a cop who had his orientation handed down from his grandfather and his father. His intentions were good, to rid the community of the criminal element, but his techniques were not always legal. In fact, his wife (Lolita Davidovich) realized so clearly that his outlook had gone to hell, she was in the process of leaving him.

The movie revolves around a crime we see early, where two masked men enter a small ethnic store, kill the owner's wife, then 3 others who just happen to come in, all to steal a safe we later find out had $150,000 in it. The chief Jack Van Meter (Irishman Brendan Gleeson) orders Eldon and his young partner Bobby (Scott Speedman) to find the killers. So the whole movie is a suspense to see if the real killers will be caught, while portraying some corruption in the LAPD. Kurt Russell is superb as the rogue cop.

SPOILERS. Turns out Van Meter was the most crooked cop, it was his guys that had robbed the store and stole the money for him, but were not supposed to kill the people. Van Meter had gotten rich off the thefts over the years. Eldon finally has to awaken to the truth, and after his wife leaves him and his young partner is killed, he shows up at his promotion ceremony to expose Van Meter to the public. Ving Rhames is good as the black cop who turns down the Chief's job offer for Cleveland, to stay and help clean up the LAPD with a goal of being the first African-American chief in LA.

(There is a kid who plays Eldon's son, Chapman Russell Way, who looks a lot like Kurt Russell. The IMDb says he is Russell's nephew. )

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