Blue Steel

A psycho killer scribes Jamie Lee Curtis' name onto the brass shells of some cartridges, loads them into his big revolver, then blows away strangers in a park. Detectives find the empty shells, so investigate JLC. Never mind that revolvers don't eject shells as semi-auto pistols do. Never mind that detectives would have known that the shells had been planted deliberately. Never mind that people don't write their names on cartridges. Correcting this film's technical inaccuracies would destroy its whole plot. Could the reason behind such silliness be a profound misunderstanding of the phrase, "a bullet with your name on it?"

"Blue Steel" features a solid pe4rformance from Jamie Lee Curtis and the stylish direction you've come to expect from Kathryn Bigelow, but its story about a crazy serial killer preying on a rookie officer is predicated on some sketchy writing. So, Curtis is the tough lady cop who foils a grocery robbery, and Ron Silver the bystander who witnesses the shooting and (by the way) pockets the robber's gun. None of the witnesses come to Curtis' support that she fired in self-defense? From the outset, she's on the defensive from everybody, including her own brothers in blue. And from then on, it's one contrivance after another that lets Silver slip through the cracks. After awhile, you just start pulling your hair.

This is forgettable stalker material, but Bigelow at least keeps things moving.

5/10

I agree with the reviewer prior to me. I am actually taking a film class at my college and we brought up the same points the last reviewer did.

It wasn't the best coherent film I seen.

The fact that the killer "mysteriously" knew where the protagonist was all the time and also knew all about her parents and friends was pretty absurd.

Not to sound redundant, but I agree that a little more info on the history of the murderer would have helped the audience when it came to perceiving and understanding the movie.

In the other side, when it comes to suspense I guess the movie is okay. If you're the type of person that doesn't care about how coherent a plot is and just like to see action, then you will like this film.

This film begins well enough, building to what looks like being a promising study of a psychopath pitted against a feisty, but vulnerable, policewoman. Drawing on fear as a driver of eroticism, the unlikely relationship between Curtis and Silver develops to the edge of what might have been a great film. But sadly, at the halfway point, the story becomes unbelievable as both characters undertake actions that render the plot risible.

Silver turns in an impressive performance as the deranged commodity trader and Curtis plays it adequately enough. But neither can do anything to save the plot line and the whole thing ends in a mess, with the hardware of weaponry taking over from the software of psychology that would have provided a far more intelligent film.

This cast contributed everything they had to this work, the story line is awesome, and the execution is purely entertaining. So what went wrong? As slick as this stylish detective/thriller is, it lacks an ending which denotes the wit and keen intellect throughout. In other words, the ending was weak enough to throw off this whole work.

Jamie Lee Curtis, nor any of her cast mates represents the problem. The problem was in the writing, however, this is still quite compelling, and dramatizes an interesting story, which has the ability to pull you in and build some awesome suspense.

All in all, although it fails to deliver satisfactorily in the end, the process getting you there is quite entertaining.

It rates a 6.8/10 from...

the Fiend :.