I'm seeing "Dark Blue" tonight, what's the buzz on it so far?
 

Going to an advance screening tonight on this. How's the pre-release buzz? I just downloaded the trailer but I haven't seen any commercials or ANY promotion yet for this.

http://www.kcstar.com/projects/prize.../dark_blue.jpg

Featured cast: Kurt Russell, Ving Rhames

Brief Synopsis:
Set in the LAPD in April 1992, it takes place just days before the acquittal of four white officers in the beating of black motorist Rodney King and the subsequent LA riots. In this racially charged climate, the LAPD's elite Special Investigations Squad (SIS) is assigned a high-profile quadruple homicide. As they work the case, veteran detective Eldon Perry (Kurt Russell) tutors rookie Bobby Keough (Scott Speedman) in the grim realities of police intimidation and corruption. Meanwhile, Assistant Chief Holland (Ving Rhames), the only man in the department willing to stand up to the SIS, threatens to end Perry's brand of single-handed "justice" on the LA streets. While navigating through tumultuous neighborhoods of South Central LA, Perry and Keough must track down killers and face their own demons.

I don't know the buzz but please post what you thought afterwards. Kurt Russell is my all-time favorite actor, but I LOATHE dirty cop movies so it kills me that he is in this movie. But he actually looks like a total bad-a$$ in the previews. I'll still go see it though.

I haven't heard any buzz on this movie, but have seen the commercial several times in the past week on television.

All I gotta say, is that it's about time Kurt Russel starred in a movie. Been too long...

Haven't heard any buzz, the trailer doesn't make me want to see it. Looks like a less sophisticated version of Narc. An analogy would be Dark Blue is to Narc as Kingpin is to The Sopranos. Just my opinion based on the trailer I've seen several times.

I think the trailer is really dumbing the movie down a lot - it's script is written by James Ellroy - who worte the fantastic L.A. Confidential, among other hard-boiled crime/noir books. His involvemnt alone makes me excited for this more than most movies have a right to.

Kurt Russel also helps.

I also want to point out how dubious the marketing for this has been:

Depending on what TV show you're watching you get a different co-star for the film - If you're watching, say Friends, in the commercials Russel's co-star is the sexy, white-boy Scott Speedman with no mention at ALL of Ving Rhames.

If you're watching something more "urban", like, say Cedric, you get V.R. as the co-star with no mention of S.S.

Also, I can tell by the editing of the ads that they're trying to sensationalize the movie and make it look like and action flick when it's actually supposed to be a relatively low-key character/situation study.

That's the thing that bothered me about the trailer. It looked like a typical brainless action flick with a nu-metal soundtrack.

i've seen a few reviews, and the highest has been 2 stars....for whatever that's worth.

this looks like it could be good. Hopefully it will do well so we can see Kurt Russell in more roles

what buzz?

JUST GOT BACK.....

This is NOT NOT NOT an action picture. Do not be fooled by the trailer. No stunts, no explosions, nothing to even warrant surround sound.

It's definitely a dialogue-driven piece about crooked cops who bend all the rules either for their benefit or to get a case over with just for the sake of closing it. If you like The Shield...

The first half of the movie is slow and drags. I thought it would be wrappping up soon when I looked at my watch and only 50 minutes had gone by. It picks up and the 2nd hour is much better.

I liked Kurt's performance. At times you think he's a bastard and you're sympathetic to him at other times. Interesting character.

Ving Rhames....
He's a "co-star" of this?

If you put his scenes in a row, you'd be lucky to get 7 minutes, max. He's BARELY in it.

Bottom line, good rental if you like The Shield and Copland, but it's not something that requires a theater with a giant screen and surround sound.

You say it's just like The Shield I'll wait for this movie on DVD. in other words a made for cable cop movie on the big screen.

I was surprised no one had mentioned that it looked liked The Shield because that was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the trailer. And now that GuessWho has stated that it is similar it confirms what I was thinking. I think I will stick with The Shield.

I'm bumping this because of the film's release today - I'm going to see it after work and I'm excited - it's been getting some great reviews.

Here's one from The Onion:
Dark Blue
Throughout his career, particularly in John Carpenter films such as Big Trouble In Little China and Escape From New York, Kurt Russell has perfected a genial John Wayne persona with a cocky drawl and swagger, but also a dopey smile that gives him away. Just enough of Russell's shaggy-dog charisma seeps into Ron Shelton's powerful Dark Blue to make his shady antihero truly dangerous, because his horrible misdeeds never quite place him beyond redemption. Based on an original story by James Ellroy, the toughest of modern-day pulp writers, the film bears a skeletal resemblance to Ellroy's L.A. Confidential, but brings its multi-layered take on LAPD corruption closer to the present, with startling immediacy and grit. Much of the action takes place in the few days before the Rodney King verdict and culminates in the riots that followed, but Ellroy and Shelton are gutsy enough to fan the flames, suggesting that the city needed to be razed before it could hope to rebuild. In a department poisoned by racial division and systemic rot, Russell qualifies as a "good soldier," a seasoned detective who isn't above cutting corners, even if it means planting evidence, taking payoffs, doctoring search warrants, and shaking down people for information. As the film opens, Russell appears in front of a shooting board to defend greenhorn partner Scott Speedman from charges that he used unnecessary force in killing a suspect. Russell's lies win the day, but a dissenting vote comes from lone black board member Ving Rhames, who's determined to expose Russell and his cronies no matter the physical and political consequences. Against this backdrop, Russell and Speedman look into a horrific quadruple homicide that appears to have been a convenience-store robbery gone wrong, but grows more sinister as its tentacles stretch into high places within the department. Like his counterpart Russell Crowe in L.A. Confidential, Russell possesses investigative instincts as sharp as his methods are dubious: He fingers the lowlife perpetrators lickety-split, but he's so thoroughly compromised that it's become impossible to do the right thing. Made in the spirit of hardboiled B-pictures, Dark Blue is designed as a sucker punch in the gut, a blunt and unsparing reminder that the King beating was not an isolated incident, but a symptom of a larger and still relevant problem within the force. Occasionally, Shelton's direction hits more like a hammer than a clenched fist—isn't the point-blank shooting of an unarmed man awful enough without the shot of a little girl's bottle shattering?—but only because his passion gets the better of him. Flaws and all, Dark Blue has a combustible energy that's usually anathema to Hollywood, reopening an old wound that has festered too quietly for more than a decade.

from an interview with the director:

"One thing that some people may see in the director Ron Shelton's Dark Bule is a slight resemblance to 2001's Training Day, both in look and tone. Ironically enough the screenplay for Dark Blue was written by David Ayer, who also wrote Training Day. Shelton, however, is not at all worried about comparisons between the two films. "Yeah, it's the same writer, but we shot it before Training Day came out. That's how long it's been done," clarifies Shelton. "This movie has a third act. Training Day doesn't, I'm happy to tell you. I think this movie is a more serious portrait of a troubled cop and the complexities in the culture that make him a troubled one. I think our movie is not as commercial, I'm sorry to say. I wish it was. And if people want to compare it, they can compare it. I think we compare better to a movie like Internal Affairs, the Mike Figgis movie. I think the knee-jerk comparison is Training Day. I think the better comparison is Internal Affairs."

^bump, since it opens today

I think I might have to go check this out. Reviews I've been reading have been mostly favorable.

But it could be a rental. We'll see. :)

-BT

I too might check this out over the weekend.

It looks like Training Day only they switch the black and white guys around.

This was a good film, not a great film, but interesting in how cops can lose their souls within their "work".

The acting performances are what drive this tale, and they do a nice job, Kurt Russell returns to form in this film.

It's an entertaining couple of hours at the theaters.

I give it 3 stars or a grade of B.

This movie was all about Kurt Russell's performance. He was just enough of a jackass to be funny - and had just enough of an edge to be threatening.

The end of the movie, though, pulled some punches and kind of "sold out" - which kept it from being a great cop drama like French Connection, or Serpico - but it was still better than most films out today.

n e other opinions? im still on the fence on this one

^ go see it!!!

IT's not the greatest film ever made, or anything. But it's a solid cop drama - miles better than most of the films in theaters right now.

I'd say wait for dvd.

I liked the movie, but it kept feeling like a made for TV cop drama. It is nowhere near as good as the Shield, and is only saved by Kurt Russell doing a great job.

The script is average at best, and like stated earlier, really sells out at the end...if they had cut one monologue, it could have been a bit better....but the pace is pretty slow, some of it is overly melodramatic... definately not a "big screen" kind of movie... worth seeing eventually, but I'd say wait for the disc.

MATT

It looks like a flat out kick-azz dirty cop in the early 90's flick.