*Very light spoilers

IMDB Synopsis

A rookie policewoman in New Orleans inadvertently captures the shooting death of a young drug dealer on her body cam. After realizing the murder was committed by corrupt cops, she teams up with the only person from the community who’s willing to help her. Now, she finds herself on the run from both the vengeful criminals and the lawmen who desperately want to destroy the incriminating footage.

In the last few years there have been an increase in movies about corruption in police forces due to the climate in our country recently. A movie last year that dealt with this was The Hate You Give (92/100) which showed from the side of the victims what can happen. However, Black and Blue directed by Deon Taylor shows what can happen when the victim is part of the system itself.

Naomie Harris plays Alicia West an Army Veteran turned Police Officer. She has come home to New Orleans looking to do good. Unfortunately the department is rife with corruption and she is caught up to the point of getting shot to prevent the truth getting out. This sets off a movie long chase basically, that is a race to see if she can get her body cam back to the station.

The overall premise is very interesting and thought provoking to say the least, I just did not think the movie totally got there. Mostly because the script and the villains were relatively bland. Other than the tense chase sequences everything else fell flat to me. The chase sequences were thrilling though, with great camera work and a pounding score.

Stock Watch

Stock Up – Naomie Harris I had only other seen in the James bond movies, but she was great in this in a starring role. You really felt for her the entire movie was someone you could root for from start to finish.

Stock Neutral – Tyrese Gibson is obviously known for his work in the Fast and Furious Universe, but he gave a great performance in this as the classic reluctant yet helpful friend. He played this kind of soft spoken on some level which made you more sympathetic toward him.

Stock Neutral – Frank Grillo did the same thing he does in basically everything I have seen him in. Let me just say he is very good as a worn bad guy who likes to growl.

Stock Down – Mike Colter and listen I am a huge Luke Cage guy so this sucks to do. But he was terrible in this and felt like a worse version of Jared Leto’s Joker. All the evil grins in the world could not save this one.

* A couple other tidbits

• She glued a gun wound?
• The score of the movie kicking in right when she got shot was a cool effect.

Overall I would say this is a fun but relatively forgettable movie for me. It did not go as far into the corruption as I would have wanted, but it does show that this is happening all over the place.

Juice Rating:

*You can find all of my Movie Ratings here.