Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good movie., 8 Dec 2003
When I hired this film out I wasn't sure what to expect, i'd heard mixed reviews about it. It was entirley Kurt Russell that attracted me to this film. In my opinion he is a fine actor deserving of more credit. This film is basically about a bad cop (Kurt Russell) who leads a rookie cop down the wrong path into corruption. He seems quite willing to kill a bad guy with no trial and no paperwork. Other people higher in the ranks push him into doing some dodgy things which in the end wreck his life. It will take you a while to get to know the characters. To begin with they seem unlikeable and one dimensional, but as the film progresses you see that the two leading characters do indeed have a concious. Kurt gradually throughout the film shows that the character isn't quite what you thought he was. He knows what he's doing is wrong and with the unfortunate incident at the end realises he has had enough and decides to do the right thing.Overall this is a very good film. The story is very similair to Training Day but in my opinion Kurt's performance is better. His acting is superb. He manages to make the climax emotional but doesn't over act at any point in the film. His character is completely beleivable. I also liked the rest of the cast. Ving Rhames was a great choice for the role as deputy chief. Scott Speedman also done a great job as Kurt's partner.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good corrupt cops drama with great performance from Kurt Russell, 5 Mar 2007
Sports guy Ron Shelton (Bull Durham, White Men Can't Jump, etc.) directs this one from a screenstory by David Ayer and James Ellroy. As you would expect with Ellroy contributing, it's a story about corruption in the L.A. police, but this one is a little more contemporary than L.A. Confidential, set as it is during the Rodney King scandal of the early nineties. World's greatest and most underappreciated actor Kurt Russell stars as detective Eldon Perry, a man who lives very much in the proverbial grey area of law enforcement.
Perry is an old-fashioned copper with no qualms about beating suspects, planting evidence, even murdering criminals when he feels it serves his purpose. While investigating a robbery with his young partner (Scott Speedman), Perry discovers a nasty can of worms and finds himself questioning, for the first time, the nobility of his cause as his life crumbles around him.
Russell, a man who tends to avoid the showy roles taken by the likes of De Niro or Crowe or Washington, gets to flex his acting muscles fully here with a part he can really sink his teeth into. He's utterly convincing as this arrogant blowhard of a man, and is just as good when it comes to showing the turmoil that begins to take him over. Screenwriter Ayer also wrote Training Day, for which Denzel Washington deservedly picked up an oscar, and Russell is treading very similar ground to Washington in this one, although with a little more ambiguity. It's a magnificent performance - up there with Russell's best work.
Although we are never allowed to forget that Eldon Perry is a monster, Shelton and co. ensure this is never a simple story with an easy answer. The question that is posed - should we allow immoral behaviour in pursuit of a higher goal - is an interesting one, and also one that will be familiar to viewers of the excellent TV show The Shield. If you've enjoyed that one, or the aforementioned Training Day, this is well worth a look.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The pits, 23 Nov 2003
As a resident of the Greater Los Angeles area, I'll be the first to say that LA isn't the most salubrious place to live. But DARK BLUE paints such an unflattering portrait of the city and it's police force that even I was mildly disgusted.Kurt Russell is LAPD Sgt. Eldon Perry serving with a special investigations unit. Both his grandfather and father were also LA cops. The family tradition is that you take a sleazeball off the streets by subduing him, shooting him in cold blood, planting a bogus weapon, then claim self defense in the subsequent Internal Affairs hearing. Perry's new partner, rookie Bobby Keough (Scott Speedman), is learning the ropes. The Perry philosophy is shared by his boss, Jack Van Meter (Brendan Gleeson), who has crooked deals going on the side that even Eldon doesn't know about. Out to nail them all is Deputy Chief Holland (Ving Rhames), whose skeleton in the closet is that he once slept with his aide, Sgt. Beth Williamson (Michael Michelle), who herself is now bedding Keough. This film has no engaging characters. Russell's Perry makes Denzel Washington's Alonzo Harris (TRAINING DAY) seem positively charming in comparison. Holland is the nominal good guy, but he demonstrates all the vitality and leadership qualities of a brick. Keough is so muddled that, by the time he sorts himself out, it's hard to care. Williamson is a knockout in her dark blue dress uniform, but otherwise has all the warmth of a police .38 stored in an icebox. DARK BLUE adds insult to injury by positioning the storyline during that week in April 1992 when Rodney King's police beaters were acquitted and parts of Los Angeles were looted and torched by angry mobs. At the very end, as I gazed on a downtown panorama of flames and smoke, I wished that all Midwesterners, Southerners, Northerners, and Easterners wishing to move to overcrowded SoCal could see this film. Perhaps they'd decide to relocate to the Balkans instead.
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