Blue Steel - Bersaglio mortale

I remember first seeing "Blue Steel" on HBO when I was a little kid. My dad made me turn it off because it was too violent (I think it after the scene where Ron Silver kills a prostitute and rubs her bloody sweater all over his naked body). Needless to say, that is one of the few memorable moments in this otherwise dull psycho thriller. The plot is standard creep-stalks-vulnerable-woman-through-the-streets-of-New York fare. In this case, the stalkee is a rookie cop played by Jamie Lee Curtis, and the psycho is Wall Street commodities trader Ron Silver.

The flick has a few things going for it: slick direction by Kathryn Bigelow, who would go on to direct better movies than this one; some decent action scenes; moody lighting and cinematography, and an eerie synth score by Brad Fiedel. Put simply, I really do like the aesthetic of "Blue Steel." Pretty much everything else is abysmal, though. The script is terrible, the pacing is extremely awkward, and it struggles to hold any kind of tension. It starts off fairly well but then devolves into a series of endless scenes in which the psycho killer appears at random, disappears, is arrested and/or injured, disappears, reappears, etc. The first half is actually pretty good, as we see the Wall Street psycho lose his grip on reality and start a murder spree, all the while hearing voices telling him he is god. Unfortunately, the film becomes less interesting and more predictable as the minutes tick by.

This cast contributed everything they had to this work, the story line is awesome, and the execution is purely entertaining. So what went wrong? As slick as this stylish detective/thriller is, it lacks an ending which denotes the wit and keen intellect throughout. In other words, the ending was weak enough to throw off this whole work.

Jamie Lee Curtis, nor any of her cast mates represents the problem. The problem was in the writing, however, this is still quite compelling, and dramatizes an interesting story, which has the ability to pull you in and build some awesome suspense.

All in all, although it fails to deliver satisfactorily in the end, the process getting you there is quite entertaining.

It rates a 6.8/10 from...

the Fiend :.

"Blue Steel" features a solid pe4rformance from Jamie Lee Curtis and the stylish direction you've come to expect from Kathryn Bigelow, but its story about a crazy serial killer preying on a rookie officer is predicated on some sketchy writing. So, Curtis is the tough lady cop who foils a grocery robbery, and Ron Silver the bystander who witnesses the shooting and (by the way) pockets the robber's gun. None of the witnesses come to Curtis' support that she fired in self-defense? From the outset, she's on the defensive from everybody, including her own brothers in blue. And from then on, it's one contrivance after another that lets Silver slip through the cracks. After awhile, you just start pulling your hair.

This is forgettable stalker material, but Bigelow at least keeps things moving.

5/10

Jamie Lee Curtis is one of Hollywood's more diverse actresses-- from being heralded the "Scream Queen" for such films as HALLOWEEN and THE FOG, to comedic genius in A FISH CALLED WANDA and TRUE LIES. Her portrayal of a rookie cop who becomes the target of an obsessed stalker (Ron Silver) after her first assignment on the force solidifies her acting abilities and film repertoire. Ron Silver plays the Wall-Street-broker-turned-psychopath flawlessly.

BLUE STEEL is a cop flick with a twist which, unlike many films in the genre, showcases a lead female's descent through the police force. Amir M. Mokri's encompassing and somber cinematography, Brad Fiedel's ambient and chilling musical score, and Kathryn Bigelow's cool, detached direction, combined with the excellent cast which also includes Louise Fletcher, Clancy Brown, and Elizabeth Peña, makes for a unique, entertaining, and esthetically pleasing film!

I am A huge fan of Kathryn Bigelow and Eric Red. I loved "THE HITCHER" (the OG one), "NEAR DARK", and "BODY PARTS". Who cares if there are parts that make you go, "Oh, yeah right, that doesn't really happen to a cop". It is a horror flick, it is designed as a horror flick, not a psychological Morgan Freeman cop thriller. If you can humor a story about Vampires, Zombies, Werewolves, and Killer Toy Dolls, then you can bite into a well made story about a wall street slasher running crazy in the city that uses a GUN instead of a Hook, Claw, Chainsaw, Axe, or whatever tickles you fancy. It is a Scary Movie, nothing more. Like "The Hitcher", the antagonist gets worse and worse and in the end it is a classic Goodguy-vs-Monster battle. Jamie is fantastic, Ron is superb, as always and so is Clancy Brown. A special appearance by Tom Sizmore also makes this movie a cool collector's item.

Many people confuse this movie as a cop suspense thriller and have passed judgment too harshly throughout the years. Most of Kathryn's and Eric's early movies are designed to scare you with the story itself than by using Scary Camera Tricks. It's an old flick, so don't expect any CGI. Many people simply judged it by looking at it as a psychological cop thriller. Don't go out like that. It is an authentic, original, stand-on-its-own, scary movie like "THE HITCHER" and "BODY PARTS". Watch it again as a Horror and you will know what I'm talking about. Be nice. Don't give in to hate. It leads to the Darkside.

Get off the Band Wagon and Enjoy it for what it is. Just watch it and pretend you're living in the 90's for Pete's Sake