Black and Blue - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Black and Blue



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Racial tension has been at the forefront of movies for quite some time, especially with the rise of “Black Lives Matter”, with multiple films over the last 5-8 years delving into those social issues. Usually dealing with urban black people and cops, which was one of the founding motives for the BLM movement. Some of these films have been less than stellar story wise, with an over aggressive attention to the “message” of racism, painting the opposition in over exaggerated stereotypes, and failing miserably at the box office. I was fully expecting to hate Black and Blue, as the synopsis seemed to paint the message of cops vs. urban black people in a sort of heavy handed way that just made me cringe. These types of over the top stereotypes of murderous cops who just look for ways to shoot black people tend to put me off as much as movies that portray all black people as thugs. It’s a caricature that meant to prop up a message and stir up emotional responses in it’s intended audience. HOWEVER, I ended up being impressed with Deon Taylor’s B level action/thriller. It’s got a bit of a heavy handed opening, but then transforms into a more traditional dirty cop thriller more than slamming an agenda.

Alicia West (Naomie Harris) is an Afghanistan veteran who has just completed her third week on the New Orleans police force. She’s still the rookie though, and a bit idealistic, and feels a bit frustrated at the more jaded attitudes of her fellow senior officers. She’s seeing the completely devastated ghettos that have cropped around the city and sees nothing but people struggling to get by, while her partner sees the danger and crime that infests those low income places. Taking a shift change for her partner Kevin (Reid Scott) she is paired with officer Deacon Brown (James Moses Black) only to get dragged into a giant mess.

Officer Brown tells Alicia to stay in the car while he checks out a confidential informant, only for Alicia to disobey orders and go into the building behind him, subsequently allowing her to view a murder at the hands of Officer Brown and several other dirty narcotics detectives. Undergoing fire form the dirty cops, Alicia barely makes it out of the building alive (albeit wounded) and desperately tries to find a way to notify headquarters, only to find out that there are a whole squad of dirty cops keeping her from getting there. Hunted and on the run, the only person she can turn to is a childhood friend and store front owner named Milo (Tyrese Gibson) and hope that she can make it out of the ghetto alive before her own partners kill her.

Black and Blue is a B-level thriller for sure, but I say that in kind of a positive light. I was fully expecting a racial bash fest on all things cops, and while that happens a bit at the BEGINNING of the film, that fades as the film progresses and become much more of a “dirty cop vs. good people” movie. The first 20 minutes of the movie sort of painted cops as all “blue is all that matters! you’re a cop, and your allegiance is to us!”, which comes across a bit heavy handed. But after about 20-25 minutes you kind of understand why those cops are saying that. Dirty cops are going to band together and cover their tails, and that’s exactly what happens.

Once the story shifts gears and becomes an actual thriller I was actually quite engaged. Naomie Harris is a great actress and she gave a lot of heart to her role. The same goes for Frank Grillo who is a master of playing gruff and hardened tough guys. The rest of the movie fades just a bit as it can’t seem to keep the momentum going, with the final act feeling a bit weak. It’s a fun enough movie, but suffers from a serious lack of momentum after the first act, and even the action packed 3rd act is a bit too little too late. That’s not to take away from some very solid performances (even Tyrese does a more nuanced job than his normal comedic loudmouth roles), but it’s still a B-level thriller at its core.




Rating:

Rated R for violence and language




Video:

The 2.39:1 framed Blu-ray is simply superb and borders on the edge of utter perfection as well. The digitally shot film is crisp and clean, with a decidedly glossy digital sheen that just reeks of clarity and stunning details. The film has a light blue and sometimes green color grading, adding to the depth of the darker shots, and giving the daylight sequences a bit of a dimmed hue. Fine details are amazing, allowing us to see the nuanced braids on Alicia’s head, to the stitches on her bulletproof vest. Black levels are consistently excellent, although there is some low light level noise that crops up pretty consistently. Facial details are amazingly clear, and even long shots of the dirty city of New Orleans shows off some great clarity. This is near perfection, and if it wasn’t for the noise that crops up fairly often, this would be 5/5 rated.








Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is very robust an exciting, with a lot of weight and power behind it. The film opens up in the streets of New Orleans where you can hear the rattle of bicycle, the mumbling of disgruntled youth, and cars roaring by. The din of a police station encompasses the listener with a great ambiance, and when the film turns into a shoot-em-up the gunfire literally rocks you back in your seat. Dialog is always crystal clear and loaded up in the front of the room, and the surrounds more than active. LFE is powerful and adds a ton of weight to the gunfire and score, but isn’t overly aggressive, if you know what I mean.







Extras:

• Deleted Scenes
• Line of Fire: Director Deon Taylor discusses his vision for the film, how it implements body cameras and what sets it apart from other police-lead thrillers
• Be the Change in the Big Easy: Naomie Harris and Tyrese Gibson discuss their roles, filming in New Orleans and the poser of unspoken words
• Trailers

Final Score: ​

Black and Blue is a pretty enjoyable thriller. It’s a low grade theatrical release, but this is nothing like many of the DTV flicks I’ve watched recently either. The acting is solid, and while the plot can sometimes get mired in heavy handed “us vs. them” caricatures, it’s not as egregious as I was expecting. The audio and video are picture perfect Sony excellence, but the extras are a bit lacking to say the least. Definitely worth it as a solid watch.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Tyrese Gibson, Naomie Harris, Frank Grillo, Mike Colter, Reid Scott, Beau Knapp, Nafessa Williams, James Moses Black
Directed by: Deon Taylor
Written by: Peter A. Dowling
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Italian DTS-HD MA 5.1, Czech, French, Polish, Spanish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Polish, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Thai, Turkish
Studio: Sony
Rated: R
Runtime: 108 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: January 21st, 2020
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Recommendation: Decent Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Will catch it once available on amazon prime/netflix.