Libramedi Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Aedonerre I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

NateWatchesCoolMovies Dark Blue is the overlooked performance of Kurt Russsel's career, and also the best. It's also a film that brilliantly examines corruption, lies, brutality and abuse of power through a thoughtful narrative lens and via a powerfully moving story. So why then was it received with an unceremonious cold shoulder? Life is full of mysteries. I was too young to see it when it came out, or pay attention to the buzz surrounding it's release, but I fell in love with it when I was older, and it remains one of my two favourite LA cop films, alongside Training Day. Kurt Russell throws himself headlong into one of the fiercest and most complex character arcs he has ever been in as Eldon Perry, an LAPD detective who comes from a long lineage of law enforcement. Eldon is a corrupt cop, but the important thing to realize about them is that they never consider themselves to be the bad guys which they are eventually labeled as. To him he's on a righteous crusade, led by Captain Jack Van Meter (a purely evil Brendan Gleeson), a quest to clear the streets using any means necessary in his power. Eldon is blind to to the broken operative he has let himself become, questioned only by his wife (Lolita Davidvitch) and son, who are both thoroughly scared of him. The film takes place during the time of the Rodney King beating, with tensions on the rise following the acquittal of four LAPD officers. Ving Rhames is resilient as Holland, the one honcho in the department who isn't rotten or on his way there, a knight for the force and a desperate loyalist trying to smoke out the corruption. Perry is assigned a rookie partner (Scott Speedman) and begins to show him the ropes, which include his patented brand of excessive force and intimidation. As crime ratchets up and a storm brews, Perry realizes that his blind trust in Van Meter and his agenda has been gravely misplaced, and could lead to his end. It's a dream of an arc for any actor to take on, and Russell it seems is the perfect guy for the job. He fashions Perry into a reprehensible antihero whose actions have consequences, but not before a good long look in the mirror and the option to change the tides and find some redemption, before it's far too late. It's not so common anymore for crime films to cut through the fat of intrigue and action, reaching the gristle of human choices, morality and the grey areas that permeate every institution know to man, especially law enforcement. Working from a David Ayer screenplay based on a story by James Ellroy (hence the refreshing complexity), director Ron Shelton and everyone else onboard pull their weight heftily to bring this difficult, challenging, sure fire winner of a crime drama to life. Overlooked stuff.

Lars Lendale ******************** SPOILERS *********************Dark Blue is not a big production movie and it gives you that impression, but if it's played late in the evening, it's worth to watch. It's not one of those big FBI cases that you read in the press, it focuses more on police misconduct, racism, shootouts and internal rivalries. The positives are Kurt and Ving's acting. Russell reaches a bit at certain times, but he matches the role of the cop crook excellently; Erratic, pathetic, racist, rabid and selfish, yet sensitive and settles in the end, for repentance. His partner, and that is the general consensus, is totally out of his element. He simply was not the right choice for this role and his role itself doesn't work out. The unit is basically a bunch of dishonest cops which he seems to tag along fine, but when Russell urges him to gun down a con, he backs down ? That's kind of weird for a guy who just got cleansed for shooting a man in unnecessary fashion. The other negative is the soundtrack, it's not good, we hardly hear it and it's too generic. The race card too, bothers me, inside the police. On the other hand, there could be more ghetto bashing since it relates to the incidents of police misconduct towards ghetto residents (or simply black color skin people). The final chase doesn't make much sense, too many factual mistakes, it wouldn't take place like that and for Russell not to be spotted from the roof top, just doesn't do it.Overall, there have been far more mediocre movies than this one, it shouldn't be that discredited. I will give it a solid 7 for a movie who's pretension is not to gross profit in theaters with a high budget.

Spikeopath Dark Blue is directed by Ron Shelton and written by David Ayer from a story by James Ellroy. It stars Kurt Russell, Scott Speedman, Michael Michele, Brendan Gleeson and Ving Rhames. Story is set in the run up to the Rodney King ignited riots in Los Angeles. LAPD officer Eldon Perry (Russell) is as tough as they come, he believes that it's OK to bend the rules if it means putting a bad guy away. But bending rules leaves a trail, a trail that leads to more corrupt cops than himself. So as he and his fresh faced partner Bobby Keough (Speedman) continue to come under intense suspicion from Assistant Chief Arthur Holland (Rhames), Perry's life is suddenly at risk; just as the city is about to explode.It's been said many times before, so I'll get it out of the way now. Dark Blue is very similar to Training Day (2001), the dirty cop based movie that bagged Denzel Washington another Oscar. What is forgotten or not known, is that Dark Blue was shot before Training Day. Written by the same writer, Ayer, Dark Blue sat on the shelf for nearly three years at studio HQ whilst the suits wondered what to do with the film. Of course, dirty cop film's have been many over the years, but both this and Denzel's movie are from the upper echelon's of the crime sub-genre, it wouldn't have hurt to have had two similar film's out in a short space of time, how many times have we seen it happen before? What it amounts to in the grand scheme of things for Dark Blue, is that it's unfairly seen as the inferior copy of Training Day. Wrong, because Dark Blue is the better movie.Opening with the infamous camcorder footage of white coppers beating the tar out of motorist Rodney King, Dark Blue sets a gritty tone from the off. From here we find our characters thrust into a city on the edge of chaos, chaos fuelled by the lead character of the piece. The link between Eldon Perry and the impending riots is key, Perry might not have been one of the actual coppers who lay down that beating on King, but it's his actions, and how he enforces the law, that forms the basis of badness that is inherent in this particular police force. The smart thing here in Ayer and Ellroy's story is that Perry is not a loose cannon egotist, he's a measured third generation cop, following in family footsteps and adhering to management policy above him. His family life is also very revealing, the makers including this arc in the film proves to be a very good move.Along side him is young Bobby, desperate to get on and be a name in the force, he's troubled greatly by Perry's (and his superiors) way of doing things. But is this the way it should be? Bad guys are bad guys, right? It's a neat vein in the narrative thread, one cop who presumes he's right in his actions, the other who hopes that his partner is right in his actions. Pitted against them is the restrained Assistant Chief Arthur Holland, driven by good, but tainted by a past indiscretion, he casts an imposing shadow over the corruption he knows exists around him. They are all well drawn characters, and with a punchy script at work, there's an air of authenticity about the movie. It may be treading a well worn genre path in basis, but it rises above most others because it doesn't soft soap its subject.That it works so well is primarily down to a towering performance from Russell. Playing Perry as fearsome and loathsome, Russell doesn't call for any sympathy: that is until he's asked to by the nature of the story. It's only after the film has finished that you realise he's given a three tiered turn, each one as believable as it is magnetic. Unfortunately Speedman is just too wet, underplaying it too much alongside Russell to the point that when he's called on for some dramatic thrust it comes off as second rate. Rhames is wonderfully sedate, while Gleeson (as always) holds his scenes with an assuredness, a presence, that few newer actors can match. Kudos, too, to Lolita Davidovich as Perry's wife, Sally. In a film that's thriving on machoness and violence, Davidovich brings a tenderness to her scenes with Russell, and it never once feels out of place.With a stronger story than Training Day, and arguably a better lead performance, Dark Blue deserves more respect and a bigger audience. It has the odd problem, such as the afore mentioned Speedman and the inevitable contrivances entering the home straight, but this is a tough nitty gritty thriller that's recommended with confidence to adult cinema fans. 8/10

Richard Burin James Ellroy wrote the story for this between The Cold Six Thousand and Blood's a Rover. It treads familiar ground for him, spotlighting a bent, alcoholic cop (Kurt Russell) whose marriage is on the rocks and whose quest for redemption is going to destroy him. Though his novels are cinematic, the demands of filmic convention generally rob Ellroy's material of its grandeur and cause it to fall apart at the end. The backdrop of the LA Riots is very effective here in terms of atmosphere (the Watts Riots form a key part of Ellroy's first major work, Blood on the Moon), but also pretentious and unilluminating. The film's major strengths are Russell's performance and a storytelling style that braids various contrasting, interesting story strands, though elements of agreeable realism are sadly overwhelmed by the daft finale. The film bears more than a passing resemblance to Training Day, from the same scriptwriter. If you like it, check out Sidney Lumet's meticulous Prince of the City.