Rent Dark Blue (2002)

Cop Thriller - Ok But..... - Dark Blue review by GI

A police corruption thriller that has achieved a bit of a cult status but lacks the style and tension that for example a director like Michael Mann has brought to his Los Angeles set crime films. Here Kurt Russell, usually always a good action lead, seems to be a bit out of sync as corrupt LA detective Eldon Perry, an alcoholic who is in thrall to his very corrupt boss played by Brendan Gleeson. Perry has a new partner, Keough (Scott Speedman) and feels it's his duty to initiate the young impressionable cop into the tough world of police work by having him shoot a bad guy in cold blood. The results begin a spiral of deceit and betrayal between these cops that will ultimately bring them all down. Told against the backdrop of the Rodney King trial where the LA cops are acquitted and riots break out this film is attempting to take a moral and liberal stance on the state of modern policing in the US. The message may be right but it seems a little crass to mix it up in a genre picture that just about keeps up its entertainment values. A little too talky when more action is required and less cliché such as the bad marriage, the exalted yet bent boss and the anti-hero cop who tries to make good in the end and the narrative coincidences are at times just a little too much. Worth checking out if you've never seen it but ultimately a film that is wanting and a bit lacklustre.