Black and Blue

Black and Blue is an action thriller set in New Orleans. It follows rookie cop, Alicia West, played by Naomie Harris, who witnesses the murder of a young drug dealer at the hands of corrupt cops. She then has to stay alive by evading them, with the help of a man from her neighborhood, until she is able to prove her innocence and present evidence. 

I thought that the pace moved well and that the story was realistic, which helped to keep me engaged . The themes around police brutality, doing what is right and being true to yourself were all timely and relevant. I liked the casting of Harris as the lead. Being one of the few females in the movie, she was able to bring a lot of confidence and power to her performance. Sometimes she was a bit over the top but for the most part she kept it right in the pocket. It was something a bit different from the things I’ve seen of her in the past, which I appreciated. Frank Grillo, on the other hand, who played, Officer Terry Malone, has definitely been typecast at this point. In Point Blank he played a similar type of role. I would have liked to see a bit more character diversity from him. Tyrese was also in this movie. He didn’t give me a lot of range in his performance but he was tolerable.

Where the movie missed the mark for me was in the predictability of the plot, the character development and the script. Because the entire story was foreseeable from early on, it lacked some of the anxiety that would come with a true thriller. The writers were vague with all of the characters back stories so that it made it hard for me to really connect with any of them. Additionally, some of the script was a bit corny and could have used more work.

Overall, I found the movie to be interesting in its idea but satisfactory in its delivery. It definitely isn’t a movie that I would have wanted to pay to watch in theatres. This is something that could have gone straight to Netflix and I would have been content.