True Blue (2001) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)

SPOILERS

This is the usual story about the chain-smoking, hard-drinking disillusioned cop who meets a pretty girl and falls under her spell. But who is pulling HER strings? The cop does go bad at her urging, but finds out that he was only a pawn in a more complex strategy. When he finds out that he was set up, he tries to make it right, but it's not easy, because by then he's managed to alienate both the police and the crimelord.
The film has some moments, but in the long run it suffers from too many stagy plot twists and contrivances. For example, we're used to the good cop being set up by the woman he loves, or even by his own partner, or even by his own captain. But in this case, he was set up by ALL THREE!! In the final confrontation with the bad guys, they just kept appearing from around corners like the ghost of Hamlet's father, or like those surprise guests on This is Your Life. They should have had Ralph Edwards announcing. "Your second betrayer is also someone close to you. Do you remember this voice?".

NUDITY REPORT
Lori Heuring showed the side of her breast when she removed her top for a sex scene.

Lisa Ng is topless lying in bed, then leaving suddenly

Several anonymous women were seen topless in a) a strip club b) a sex club c) a drug raid
The poor cop would inevitably get hoodwinked by his betrayers' conspiracies. He would say to the captain "you can't kill me because I wrote everything down and gave it to my partner", at which point the partner would come popping up from a nearby manhole cover, having overheard the whole thing, and in league with the captain.

The final mysterious revelations were followed by one of those shoot-outs where every single character shoots every other character several times, and they are all lying in pools of their own blood.

DVD info from Amazon.

  • Widescreen anamorphic, 1.85:1, or full screen

  • no meaningful features

If the resolution was too silly, the set-up stage of the film was the usual twists and countertwists and there were too many of them, in my opinion, so that I was getting lost when I saw the new characters and when I heard them talking about the various possibilities. I did kind of enjoy the final scene, in which the good cop stays semi-bad by making an unholy alliance with the local crimelord in order to get revenge for something in a sub-plot involving an earlier girlfriend.

On balance, however, I suggest you skip this. I like crime stories with lots of surprise twists, but this one was just too filled with murky details and undeveloped characters.

The Critics Vote

  • no reviews online

The People Vote ...

  • With their votes ... IMDB summary: IMDB readers say 6.2/10
  • with their dollars ... premiered on cable
IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C-. Barely watchable thriller.

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