Black and Blue (I) (2019) User Reviews

some flaws but still good

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 11 January 2020]

Rookie cop Alicia West (Naomie Harris) is returning to patrol her childhood New Orleans neighborhood. Her body camera records narcotics detective Terry Malone (Frank Grillo) executing his drug dealers to hide his drug deals before a coming wave of investigations. Malone and his police accomplices pursue West through the devastated neighborhood as they seek to eliminate the body camera. She finds help from reluctant local Mouse (Tyrese Gibson).

This has good potential. It has some deep flaws but it is still able to pull off a thrilling crime drama. First, modern communication is an overwhelming enemy of this movie. West should radio in her situation after the first two gun shots. Her radio should still work after Malone intercepts her transmissions. When she gets Mouse's phone, she should be calling everyone and anyone. Couldn't she call 911? The easiest solution would be a POS malfunctioning radio and Mouse not having a phone. Once somebody has cracked the body cam, it should be much more simpler to hand it over to a TV station than a police station. When West kills the gangsters, she should check the car. I'm assuming that the director missed a scene there. West is trying to hide and she should really change out of her police blues. Despite these annoying flaws, the movie still works with some good thrills.

Decent thriller with sufficient tension n action.

[Fella_shibby · 7/10 · 31 December 2019]

The film is a about a female cop who goes on the run after she witnesses a murder. The plot has been done umpteenth no of times. Cops burning 50 percent of the confiscated drugs n they sell off the remaining 50 thru their dealers n when things get heavy they try to cut loose ends. The best part about this film is Miss Moneypenny's acting. The star cast is decent, we have Frank Grillo n Tyrese Gibson. Grillo must be tired doing the same kinda roles but he is good at it. It was so good to c Gibson aft long time sans Fast n Furious.

Director Deon Taylor gave two good slasher films: 7eventy 5ive n Chain Letter but his Intruder n Traffik weren't good.

Haters gonna hate

[jmdillehay · 7/10 · 2 November 2019]

Solid movie. It was very tense and entertaining. I get the feeling that the super low ratings are from people that hate the message. I mean seriously...a 1/10? Thats silly. I guess the low rating people are either unaware or turn a blind eye to police brutality and corruption. Do a little research and you will find that the NOPD has a long history of corruption. I rate it a 7/10 based on the movie outside of the message. I would not be surprised if the same people that hated black and blue loved training day because the lead is a corrupt cop black man. This is not a bad film at all.

Very decent triller

[maneshdominic-649-754864 · 7/10 · 13 September 2020]

I kept this movie aside for quite sometime reading the poor reviews. I watched it after the recommendation of a friend. The movie was a pleasant surprise. A very good thriller with good suspense. Also, I learned that I shouldn't be always falling for the negative comments of users. Many of them gave negative review as the cops were shown as the criminals. But then there are good and bad people among priests also.

Disregard the super low reviews! Not fair...

[xomlaodong · 7/10 · 26 October 2019]

I didn't know why this movie had a low review. Went to watch it then thought, "Ohhh, now I see why." The low reviews probably come biased with the bad publicity for law enforcement lately. This movie portrayed some issues that happen to relate to law enforcement but sticks to its own plot for the sake of its own ENTERTAINMENT VALUE instead of political statement.

Good cast. Good acting. Suspenseful. More substance than Gemini Man. Straight up linear movie without offensive hidden agendas. The movie definitely deserves more praise. Come on, people!

Endlessly generic but at least distracting; irony of the cast is that they both lift it, and deserve much better

[bob the moo · 16 August 2020]

I've been a fan of Naomie Harris since she was in White Teeth, and I was interested to see this thriller with her in the lead, even if the trailer and everything I heard about it told me it would be generic at best. Unsurprisingly this is what it was - the type of thriller that you could stop after 15 minutes and pretty much guess the rest. Of course the reason why we know this type of plot is that some films have done it really well and made it a model to be leant on, but not this film. Instead it plays it out in the most obvious way, with little effort in the writing and no twists or turns to even vaguely excite - everything is heavily signposted as if they didn't trust the viewer to get anything by themselves. As it goes where you expect, it delivers enough distracting scenes to manage to get by, but everything is heavy-handed. The title is pretty obvious in its meaning, but it doesn't do anything clever with it, but it leans all over it from the very start. The actual thriller elements are also fairly basic and hard to believe and there was so much scope to be tighter and better.

The blame lies in two very obvious places - writer and director. Neither of them have much in their filmography to be excited about. The writer did Flightpath and Reasonable Doubt - high points in his career but demonstrably not great films. The most notable thing about the director that I can see on his IMDb page is that his PR people wrote his bio - or at least I can't see any other reason why it says that he "is a self-taught, creative genius" when this film suggests he is absolutely not. The main selling point of the film is what brought me to it - the cast. Harris is much, much better than the material deserves; she puts in a lot of effort to show her rage, morality, desperation, but the writing does not help her one bit and too many lines clunk out of her mouth. It hurts because there was a much better film and performance here, and the writing takes it from her. Gibson is a bit better because he has more to work with, although not much. Grillo is reliable as ever, and the rest of the cast are mostly generic cariactures befitting such a generic film.

It distracts and meets the low bar I came to it with, but it doesn't do anything more than that. The cast make it better than it is, but at the same time they are pretty much all wasted here.

Not as bad as the rating

[ayojerkinskarega · 7/10 · 25 October 2019]

Very interesting narrative about police and race relations; but because of how the movie was executed, it falls short. Ok writing, acting, and plot. The main character, Alicia West played by Naomi Harris, story was pretty good. At times, because of the directing, her acting wasn't believable. Also, because of the spotty development of the secondary characters, it was hard to have any empathy towards them. In contrast, great use of background aka mise-en-scene, to deliver a message to the viewers that are watching. Lastly, I do like the overall message of the film which is that we all are people (especially black people and other people of color) and all we want is to be treated as such.

Harris is great

[A_Different_Drummer · 7/10 · 31 December 2019]

Harris is great, superb, the script is overlong, has plot holes you could drop Kansas into, and the political overtones don't help. Perfect for a cross country flight.

To some bad reviewers!

[onggiachay_max · 8/10 · 25 October 2019]

Ok let's get this straight. The movie is pretty good to me. Some "American traditional" social problems are depicted strongly and its script is great also. I am not a drama person but I feel that it is a bit weird when most of bad reviews are made just because the content points out some cops are bad?! Really guys, isn't that not true? Guys, bad people are everywhere, they can be teachers, doctors and of course they can be cops. It's absolutely logical and makes sense. No matter if you are a real patriot or not, you can't deny this fact. It would be silly to rate the whole performance 1 star just because you don't accept this truth. Please don't be rude and make your reviews fairly so this website can bring its true value to everyone. To those who don't see the movie yet, there is nothing wrong with it, just spend some bucks buying tickets yourself, your sweetheart and families and enjoy the movie. I promise everything's gonna fine! Don't put your trust on haters!

Subtle as a brick to the face

[pitbullgeek · 6/10 · 26 October 2019]

Starts with a black woman in a hoodie getting stopped while jogging. Confronts white cops with attitude, gets slammed against fence. Turns out to be fully fledged cop with her shield in her pocket. Aannnd that's about as subtle and nuanced as Black and Blue gets.

Even the scene where the cops get coffee later on is ramped up for tension.

Misfire. Could be so much more with a little more finesse on the script editing.

I don't know if you can present what could have been a decent story in a worse way

[jrneptune · 4/10 · 17 May 2020]

No idea how the rating on IMDB is as high as it is.

The basic idea of the story might have been a good idea but the way this movie is executed insults the intelligence of the public and is so full off plot holes and mistakes it gets painful to watch it. I could list off the long list of plainly stupid mistakes in the movie but I don't want to bother and have better use of my time.

I purposely gave it a 4 instead of a five because even if your a fan of an actor or someone who helped make the movie I would not recommend it.

Naomie Harris deserves better.

Gripping and suspenseful!

[skullcrushergurl · 9/10 · 25 October 2019]

I have NO idea where these bad reviews are coming from. The movie was just released today! Anyway the story was gripping. It does touch on where identity and being a cop intersect but at the end of the day right is right and wrong is wrong no matter who you are. The acting (especially by Naomi Harris and Tyrese) is phenomenal. Very suspenseful and action packed.

Not bad

[chris-arrieta · 7/10 · 28 October 2019]

Pretty good movie right here. I could actually see this movie happening in real life. As a matter of fact, I bet this has happened in real life. Anyway, the action and acting in this movie were awesome. Luke Cage was even in this, but he played a bad guy, who becomes a good guy, sort of.

Did anyone else find this oddly similar to training day?

[justinbigelli · 5/10 · 25 October 2019]

Here's a list of exact scenes from training.

1. Rookie cop gets partnered with a dirty cop. 2. Rookie cop whitenesses dirty cops doing a crime. 3. Rookie cop returns to the bad "ghetto" alone. 4. Rookie cops get thrown into a bath tub and almost gets killed. 5. Bad guys in the ghetto end up helping rookie cop. 6. Dirty cop gets exposed at the end.

And this is only off my memory of training day that I haven't seen in well over 10 years. I'm sure if I was to watch it again I would have been able to list at mother 5 or 6 identical scenes.

Good Movie

[ckarmand · 7/10 · 26 November 2019]

This was a date night movie for me and the wife and it did not disappoint. Realistic story that mainstream American still tries to deny. The story of rouge cops, and cover ups are heavy in the news today. This movie reminds us that the Police is the most dangerous gang in America.

The message was loud and their is a good movie under it.

[subxerogravity · 6/10 · 25 October 2019]

It's one of those movies made to pull at the emotional strings of a certain audience. Everything about this movie was niche to black folks tired of police brutality and this movie is all about justice for those who get none. Every single scene will have you shouting at the screen if you know what if feels like to be targeted by the cops cause of the color of your skin. The point that they were trying to make registered, but the movie was not bad at the same time. It Had some good action, very suspenseful and I especially liked Nomi Harris and Frank Grillo as the opposing sides Entertaining .

Better storyline than I expected.

[ilovefoodcoma · 7/10 · 26 October 2019]

Even though I could already guess the ending of the movie but it was still exciting to find out how the bad guys got caught! Definitely better storyline than I expected.

Absolutely Awesome to watch! Dont believe the low ratings!

[tanvirbt546 · 7/10 · 27 October 2019]

Just coming out of the theaters. And i am surprised to see the low ratings. Everyone in the theater loved it and even clapped after the movie. Naomi Harris brought her A Game in the movie. Excellent performances overall. The movie is straight forward but still full of suspense. There are Good cops and Bad cops and like Society the Bad out numbers the Good, But the Good always wins. And that happens in all the movies all the time. It is how you you tell the story. The movie had substance in it, Not all guns blazing, there is a story line , good action sequences and overall an excellent movie to watch. Dont want to give any spoilers go watch for yourself, and I promise you wont be disappointed.

Full of Suspense

[roman-dadiomoff · 9/10 · 27 September 2019]

This is an excellent movie that exceeded expectations. My wife and I got to go to an advance screening and were expecting a solid 6 but it blew our socks off. Naomie Harris is phenomenal and her character Alicia's backstory is what made this such a good movie. To have grown up on those streets and know the people but to leave and serve in the Army to come back as a cop (presumably after her mother dies after you see her moms tombstone at the very beginning). This story is a great example about how one person can make a difference and that committing a crime is wrong no matter who does it.

a slick, mostly timely cat and mouse cop thriller that is perfectly OK

[Quinoa1984 · 6/10 · 25 October 2019]

Deon Taylor isn't the best director of B movies that are being released on thousands of screens, but he is... *a* director of them, not totally without some measure of competence and among the three Screen Gems movies he's helmed over the past two years, Black and Blue lets him show what he can do with a more-than-competent script, with shades of... May I be high-minded and compare to High Noon? Only this time the law is asking for help from the public to protect from murderous lawman, so maybe that and a large sprinkling of David Ayer in Training Day/End of Watch mode. In other words, it's not as good as those films, but it's no disgrace by any means either.

Plus, he has actors in Harris and (yes) Tyrese Gibson ready to flex, on top of a chewing-the-set-via-gold-teeth Mike Coulter. This is not to say he's made a giant leap into being 'Someone To Watch', yet when his previous flicks were the insufferable Traffik and sorta-passable-because-of-Quaid The Intruder, a hard-boiled programmer (after a long day of work no less) was what the doctor ordered... Up to a point.

Sure, it certainly has its faults at points, including a couple of story contrivances in order to make a couple of lame message/wrap-around points (including one where Tyrese happens to get some, uh, I guess payback, but I wonder what happens right after his character does that to the, oh, nevermind). But it's got well-directed action, some tense set pieces involving the cat and mouse on-the-run dynamics of West vs Everyone, not to mention boiling hot topical themes and issues that resonate under the surface - which is always a plus in a B movie of this kind - and the locations add much credibility as it was all filmed in parts of New Orleans that many coming down for a vacation or such would not ever go to.

It still feels like a slick Hollywood product, though with some varnish and a depiction of poverty and crime that isn't in something people watching can't or wont recognize. It's not fun bad, or something one will remember a year from now, but it can pass 90 minutes well enough (and an enthusiastic black audience helps).

Pretty Good, Faster Pace Needed

[Johnny_West · 5/10 · 18 May 2020]

Hundreds of movies about police corruption have been made, including Another 48 Hours. Nobody made a big deal about the race issue. I did not care. I remember the Alien Nation TV series had a couple of episodes about corrupt alien cops. It is just a story, and the important thing is whether or not it works.

Frank Grillo plays the main evil, corrupt, psychotic killer detective. He is the leader of the corrupt cops. Grillo is great at being vicious and evil. It is easy to hate his guts.

Grillo's main sidekick is another bad cop, played by Beau Knapp. This guy is not just a cold-blooded killer, but he likes to make nasty remarks all the time. He manages to be a psychotic jerk. Another guy who is easy to hate.

The next bad cop is played by James Moses Black. Black plays the senior police officer who is taking Naomie Harris on patrol. Naomie Harris is a rookie officer with only three weeks on the police force. Black takes a call, and he decides to drive over to help Grillo and Knapp kill three of the guys who sell the stolen drugs / police evidence for them.

Black is not meant for this role, because he does not come across as the same level of evil as Grillo and Knapp. Black looks like a nice guy, not a psychopath. I could see him as a corrupt cop who takes some kind of kickbacks for traffic citations, but not as a full fledged killer cop. They should have had somebody that could act as crazy as Grillo and Knapp.

The last of the bad cop gang is played by Reid Scott, who is another guy that does not fit. Scott does a pretty good job acting as a half-assed corrupt cop who is also a half-assed cop in general. Scott basically takes the tact that he is just a crummy cop in general, and gutless too. That approach works, though I would have liked it better if all four of the bad cops were off the charts evil.

Mike Colter plays a brief role as the main drug dealer. Colter is a great actor, and when he found out who killed his nephew, the writers should have let him kill Grillo. There are a hundred technical police reasons why the ending sucked. Grillo was about to get killed about ten times, and nobody pulled the trigger. I felt like the movie did not deliver the goods.

Naomie Harris did a very good job acting like a rookie cop who had military experience. Her character was interesting. She was tough, and proud, but she could be humble too. Some of her lines could have been better. She spent too much time trying to connect with her old friends, and that slowed the pace down.

Tyrese Gibson did a great job in his supporting role. His character went from no interest in Harris, to helping her, and then getting shot up. Gibson was a great friend to Harris, but their relationship was too platonic and sterile. They had enough chemistry that having Harris show she cared for Gibson would have been nice. At the end of it all, the character of Naomie Harris is too much like some kind of Nun or Saint. She should have been willing to pull the trigger when she had the chance.

I liked it better than the film critics did

[Top_Dawg_Critic · 8/10 · 20 January 2021]

Not sure why they nitpicked on this one so hard - maybe they can't stand all the bogus high single-film reviewers, but still, far too many haters as well. I for one enjoyed it. The directing was on point, the screenplay was well put together with excellent pacing for the 108 min runtime. Sure there were a few plot issues and some cliches, but it was still very suspenseful and entertaining. Just sit back and enjoy the ride. Cinematography and score were decent, and the casting and all performances were excellent. It's refreshing to be satisfyingly impressed when going in with low expectations. It's a very deserving 8/10 from me. To see how I review films, or read more of my 1000+ reviews, click on my username.

Rookie vs Bad Cops

[stevendbeard · 6/10 · 26 October 2019]

I saw "Black and Blue", starring Naomie Harris-Rampage, Moneypenny in the Daniel Craig Bond movies; Frank Grillo-The Purge:Election Year, Captain America:The Winter Soldier; Tyrese Gibson-the Fast & the Furious movies, the Transformers movies and Mike Colter-Luke Cage_tv, The Good Wife. This is a cop thriller with a rookie cop vs bad cops. Naomie is the rookie cop that winds up in the wrong place, where a drug dealer is meeting some dirty cops. Things go from bad to worse when the bad cops-led by Frank-kill the unarmed dealers in cold blood. Naomie gets the whole transaction on her body cam, which starts a dangerous game of hide & seek with her hiding and the bad cops seeking her and her body cam. To make matters worse, Frank puts out the word that Naomie did the killing and the dead dealers uncle-a big drug dealer himself, played by Mike-puts out a bounty on Naomie's head, so just about everyone is after her; good cops, bad cops, drug dealers, drug dealers' friends, etc. Tyrese plays a local store owner that is about the only person that will even try to help her get her body cam footage to someone that can be trusted to put it to good use. There is not much new here-as far as plots go-but it is executed decently. It's rated "R" for violence and language and has a running time of 1 hour & 48 minutes. It's not one that I would buy on DVD-one viewing is enough-but it would be alright as a rental.

Decent Thriller

[insideatl · 5/10 · 19 November 2019]

The acting was above average good performances by Tyrese Gibson and Naomie Harris. Harris did well considering the plot gets basic fast. The plot wasn't all bad it just lacked creativity, there was definite room for improvement. The film was entertaining but then it kind of becomes very predictable; you're really waiting to see how it's going to end. Overall it's a decent thriller; not bad but not good either.

Worth A Watch

[Mr_Porter86 · 6/10 · 28 October 2019]

Pretty good movie overall. The whole "blue" thing that was heavily portrayed throughout the film seemed authentic. I really think a good chunk of police officers live by that code. Us vs Them mentality that we have seen result in the deaths of thousands of unarmed civilians. Anyway, the action was cool...no big "oh s**t" moments (in my opinion) but it's definitely worth a watch.