Audiences game for a nasty, turbulent ride, which is mercifully relieved by some neat performances and jaunty pacing, will strap in their seatbelts.
Comment
02/22/03
Dark Blue (2003)
57
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:127
Fresh:73
Rotten:54
Average Rating:5.8/10
Consensus: Kurt Russell gives a good performance. Too bad there’s nothing here that you haven’t seen before.
Runtime: 3 hrs 56 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: There aren't many cops left like Eldon Perry (Kurt Russell). A member of the Los Angeles Police Department's Special Investigations Squad (SIS), veteran Perry is no stranger to the violence of the... [More]
Starring: Kurt Russell, Scott Speedman, Ving Rhames, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Ron Shelton
Reviews for Dark Blue
Effectively gritty when need be, but for most of its running time meanders as it tries to find its central story arc.
02/21/03
Harrowing and compulsively watchable morality play.
02/21/03
The movie ends not with a bang but a wimp.
02/21/03
Until it dissolves into conventional melodrama during a climactic fracas, this fast-paced story is never less than watchable.
02/21/03
While David Ayer's script lacks the deft plotting of L.A. Confidential, it has something most thrillers sorely lack: a conscience.
02/21/03
A flawed and melodramatic affair with echoes of Training Day and L.A. Confidential that nevertheless has the whiff of truth.
02/21/03
Dark Blue is similar to Training Day, but it's a better movie because the issues aren't as clear-cut.
02/21/03
A flawed film, but occasionally a haunting one.
02/21/03
Dark Blue has its moments, but also too many nagging problems that undermine the effort.
02/21/03
While Dark Blue may not be easy to watch, it's exceptionally well made.
02/21/03
Russell is campaigning to get back into acting shape after such goof-arounds as 3000 Miles to Graceland and Escape From L.A. But shoving him through the grinder of cop cliches, then giving him a Frank Capra climax, invites defeat.
02/21/03
Shelton tackles every New York cop-film cliche here and gives them a bracing West Coast spin, capturing L.A. with the same breathless rapture others have brought to New York.
02/21/03
Dark Blue is a film of wounding power. It stays with you.
02/21/03
Dark Blue takes the premise of Denzel Washington's recent Training Day and plants it in a more realistic world.
02/21/03
While much of the action rings true in Dark Blue, and the events leading up to the riots make for a tense, eerie framework, the movie heads in a disastrous direction ...
02/21/03
After an hour of not much, Dark Blue stumbles onto a terrific scene, the sort that makes the whole movie worthwhile.
02/21/03
Dark Blue is a bit of a mess, but like the Rodney King mess, it makes you think. Any film that accomplishes that can never be out-of-date.
02/21/03
Needed more grit and finesse.
02/21/03
Director Ron Shelton, like Russell, is working outside his normal range. ... And, like Russell, Shelton adapts well to the new surroundings.
02/21/03
Latest News for Dark Blue
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November 04, 2005:
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April 28, 2005:
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