I was chanced to see a movie titled Black and Blue yesterday since it was a start of my weekend and i wanted to get as relaxed as possible. A rookie policewoman (Alicia West) in her early thirties, captures the murder of a young boy on her body cam. You wouldn’t believe who committed the crime; her fellow police officers! Shocking, right? Seeing this, I decided to write a black and blue movie review to express my opinion about the movie.
After capturing footage of corrupt cops killing unarmed young black men on her bodycam, rookie cop Alicia West (Naomie Harris) is on the run from the police as she fights to get the truth out there.
Black and Blue is the kind of film you’ve probably seen before. It’s a corrupt cop film that follows some very similar beats to films that have come before it and in fact the final showdown definitely had some echoes of Training Day. That’s not to say Black and Blue is a bad film, it’s just one that has very few surprises.
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Naomi Harris is very good in the lead role, capturing the resolve to do what’s right while being unsure of who she can trust because just about every other cop she encounters as she tries to get back to the police station to upload the bodycam footage seems to have an ulterior motive. The one person she does learn to trust is Tyrese Gibson’s Mouse, a guy who works at a shop and doesn’t want any trouble but ends up helping her anyway. Having mostly seen Gibson in the Transformers and Fast and Furious franchises where he’s often cracking a joke every five minutes, it was nice to see him tackle a more serious role where his character was more stoic and thoughtful. Almost unsurprisingly Frank Grillo plays the lead corrupt cop. He always does a good job of playing a bad guy though his character seems to have a slight manic edge to it that doesn’t quite seem to fit in with the tone that Harris and Gibson seem to be going for. Still, he’s always fun to watch and the scenes where he’s stalking Harris’ West are quite tense.
Themes of racial tension and whether or not a Black person can still be Black while being a police officer are sprinkled throughout the film. Black and Blue never really commits to these themes though; it’s like it’s trying to combine more recent Black Live Matter messages with a corrupt cop film of the late 90s/early 2000s and it doesn’t really hit the mark. West is someone who sees people as people and while she knows some people who ended up affiliated with gangs, she sees them as more than what her colleagues tend to do. Many of the cops and the Black people she meets seem to have an us vs them mentality which she does not share, meaning she struggles to fit in with her co-workers and the community she used to be a part of. Harris does a good job of showing West’s inner turmoil about this but neither her nor the script are really strong enough for this complex topic.
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Review
This is such a nice movie to watch as it enlightens you on racism, unfair treatment by the police and corruption in the system. The system is broken they say, and isn’t that just, right? We see how hard it is for a black woman’s voice to be heard. Naomi Harris (Alicia) did an exceptional job playing that role. Honestly, I had my doubts at first but only the trailer captivated me to watch the movie. Although with some unclear scenes, I believe that was not the point they were trying to make from the movie.
Frank Grillo (Terry Malone} is my favorite villain of all time! His acting skills are beautiful, perfectly portraying the role of a bad guy in this action thriller. I didn’t see much of Mike Colter (Darius Terrow) and he wasn’t as terrifying as I thought he should. Anyways I’m not as surprised maybe because none of his roles in any TV show has intrigued me. I think he should have done better.
James Moses Black (Deacon Brown) didn’t intrigue me either, left to me, they could have chosen a better person. Oh, and I forgot to add Beau Knapp (Smitty) played a very awesome ‘bad cop’ as it speaks the truth of what happens in the society today. People are threatened by cops who pledged to serve. It is so disheartening to see videos of police brutality on social platforms. People are being harassed by law enforcement agents and I was glad emphases were made in this movie.
Summary
It is also a subtle reminder that a crime is a crime even if the victim is guilty. You do not have the right to take someone’s life because you’re in that position. I would rate this movie 7.5/10 and it shouldn’t deserve less. The points were made very clear and everyone should take time out of busy schedules to watch the movie. I also hope you enjoyed this Black and Blue movie review.