Black and Blue wanted to be End of Watch so badly.
Spoilers
2019’s Black and Blue seemingly appeared to be an appropriate film to examine in the wake of all of the reports of police brutality that’s been on the news lately. Black and Blue is a Sony production that stars Naomi Harris as a rookie cop who witnesses a fellow cop murdering some young men.
Presumably, drug dealers, as you find out later that this cop (Terry Malone, played by Frank Grillo) is a narc cop who deals in drugs. Terry and his band of corrupt cops (aka the whole police force in the film) try to track Harris’s character [Alicia] before she gets to the police station to turn in her body cam. Which, filmed the whole thing.
It Had The Opportunity to Be Something Bigger
Alicia is literally the only good cop in the whole movie Everyone else is corrupt. Every character is also a cartoonish and one-dimensional version of what you would imagine a character to be in a situation like this. It had the opportunity to create a dialogue centering around Alicia being a WOC and having to deal with the conflict of being someone of color and being a police officer. Who, in this movie and most often in the news/real-life; look out for their own, which often means harm for black communities. Alicia must deal with wanting to be “blue” and wanting to be accepted by those who feel, often; so forgotten and abused by the police. This movie could have really had a bigger conversation, but it was bogged down by cliche potholes, terrible dialogue, and really subpar acting.
Why Was The Acting So Bad?
It’s strange how bad the acting was. It must have been the script, which was filled with stale and frankly, cringy dialogue. Harris is not a bad actress. I mean, she was in Pirates of the Caribbean, 28 Days Later, the recent Bond franchise, and will be Shriek in the upcoming Venom sequel. I hope she doesn’t bring that bad acting along in Venom: Let There Be Carnage. She’s both a Golden Globe and Academy Award nominee – she’s better than this.
Black and Blue also stars Tyrese Gibson, Frank Grillo (who I normally like in projects), and Mike Colter. Colter was the best person in this film – the only one who seemed to be putting in any effort. Also, seeing him as a bad guy had made me want a third season to Luke Cage – where we would see a more morally ambiguous Luke Cage.
It Didn’t Make Sense
So much of this also made no sense. Such as Alicia sitting in the squad car while her temporary partner goes into a suspicious warehouse in the middle of nowhere. When she hears shots, she simply runs in. Why wouldn’t you call for backup? They also would have caught her a thousand times. The movie treats each person like cartoon-like a stereotype, with the civilians being depicted as uncaring and aloof to someone who is bleeding and pleading for help at their front door. Also, Alicia was in the military, but not once did that military training really come into play at all.
Rating: 2/5
In this film, the police are the real gangsters and there was a way to depict that. One that would have been good and engaging. This movie wanted to be End of Watch and at some point tried to be the Purge meets John Wick. I had had high hopes for this film. I had wanted to not pay attention tot he negative reviews and form my own opinion. Unfortunately, the negative reviews were right. This was not a good movie and really could have approached this entire storyline better.
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