Customer Reviews

Blue Blood

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I screened this film some time ago and it's a great Film Noir for fans of the genre. Roy Scheider (Jaws) is super as 'the detective' in a hitchcock-styled cat and mouse that takes place in Long Island's The Hamptons. Lust... greed... murder.... everything you need for a night of home entertainment indeed:)

Following their wacky freshman effort about independent moviemaking, "Nine Out of Ten", the Cummings brothers have made their version of a film noir (short at 76 minutes) that tries to put more emphasis on character than on plot per se. The problem is that the characters are just not strong enough to sustain a palpable noir atmosphere. Bill Sage as the husband can only go so far with the dialogue he has to work with and his motive for doing what he does in the film is not quite clear enough to justify the violent ending.

If lust is a motive, it's subtle. If greed is a secondary motive, it's even more hidden (something about making money from a future mall parking lot or some such). There is certainly murder, but it feels disconnected from all the other events in the movie. It could be that the brothers intentionally wanted to stay clear of being overly obvious in re film noir, but in doing so have made a movie too loose to feel like that's what this should be. It could also very well be that many will disagree with this and say it's a tightly wound piece that hits every mark it's supposed to in order to, in fact, make it a real noir.

Some of the movie is confusing; you don't know, at least initially, exactly who it is that gets killed. Then when you do know, you have to connect the violent ending with what happened earlier and it's not that clear.

The three stars are for a novel approach that actually does work here and there, but is nowhere near strong enough to stand out as a solid noir.

I had the pleasure to watch an advance of this film and must say that Roy Scheider did a superb job in his last acting role! The ending was a real surprise (though well deserved!). A fine evening's entertainment.