Black and Blue 2019 * * * 1/2 Stars

Director: Deon Taylor
Year: 2019
Rated R
Rating: * * * 1/2 Stars
Cast: Naomie Harris, Frank Grillo, Beau Knapp

"It was the cops that shot me". Oh really. That's gotta stink especially if you are a cop.

Anyway, 2019's Black and Blue is the be-all-end-all of dirty fuzz thrillers. As something about a rookie policewoman who witnesses a corrupt, execution-style death on her body cam, "Blue" is high energy, highly volatile, thuggish, and nastily dangerous. No one is safe in this movie and that includes the audience, the "Crescent City" denizens, and the venal NOPD (New Orleans Police Department).

Granted, Black and Blue is implausible, remorseless, and far-fetched just like every other crooked crime caper. I mean the beating these personas take would put any other doughnut eater in a wheelchair. Still, you can't deny "Blue's" relentless prowess that hits you like a darn sledgehammer. You want a more down and dirty version of Training Day, Street Kings, and/or 2015's Run All Night? Well Black and Blue will give it to you. And do want to see the flick that 21 Bridges wished it could've been? Well you got it threefold with "Blue". 

The cast of Black and Blue is especially solid. That includes the tough as nails Naomie Harris (she plays rookie Alicia West), the Dante-like Frank Grillo (bad cop Terry Malone), the snarling Beau Knapp (he's always snarling), and the unrecognizable Tyrese Gibson (did he gain some weight?). Their characters respire heavily as the defiled, New Orleans landscape ingests them whole.

All in all, Black and Blue's plot unfolds into a New Orleans shootout that turns into modern day Beirut. It's the po-po versus the kingpins, Naomie's West versus the above the law trigger men, and West versus the thugs who have a torrid price on her head. You can smell the bullets and as a viewer, you won't be able to breathe. Rating: 3 and a half stars.

Written by Jesse Burleson