Nobody does tough and uncompromising better than Kurt
Russell. That he's never been finer as the amoral protagonist in Dark Blue seems to auger well for this police corruption thriller. Sadly, after promising so much, Russell's vivid performance is the only thing worth taking from this self-conscious movie which is all too eager to take a conformist line after a lively opening.
Set in 1992, in the lead up to the Rodney King riots, Russell plays Eldon Perry, a third generation LA cop who hardly bothers to disguise his racism and is an honours graduate from the shoot-first-ask-questions-later school of thought. He's paired off with a rookie, Booby Keough (Speedman), the nephew of squad chief, Jack Van Meter (Gleeson). After a couple of hoods go on a killing spree, Van Meter hands the two cops the case, with strict instructions to nail the rap to anyone who fits the bil.
Although its source material is a James Ellroy story, the writer of Training Day, David Ayer, knocked off the screenplay of Dark Blue, and comparisons are obvious (dirty cops doing dirty things). Like Training Day, Ayer manages to keep a tight reign on the characters and plot for the first hour or so, before turning everything into a moral crusade, sacrificing whatever findings (however meagre) he's made on the complexities of the embittered male psyche in a rush to tie everything up in neat packages.