True blue - L'anello mancante

The movie has a very dark feel about it. In each progressive scene the director takes the viewer deeper and deeper into the abyss of inner city corruption. The dreary mood of the film serves as an excellent backdrop for the mature subject matter being presented. The main character played by Tom Berenger, does a great job of portraying a man who is on the brink of losing it all, and sets the stage for his apparent liability. Although some of the scenes are predictable, the film does a good job of keeping you guessing as to what's coming next. Overall I found this to be an enjoyable, and entertaining film, well worth the price of a rental for an evening.

TV thrillers. So many of them and they all somehow mesh together in your mind. It's sad to see Tom Berenger, a quality actor, not getting any good roles these days in movies, so this is basically what we can expect in the future. That said, True Blue gave me quite a shock; in the sense that I actually found it entertaining.

Tom stars as a broken down, physically aggressive, alcoholic detective with a past (do they come any other way?) who's investigating a crime that may uncover some police corruption. So who's really a True Blue?

This is actually a fairly well written yarn, fast paced and well acted. Tom is solid as the stereotypical detective and the rest do a good job as well. The plot is well constructed and offers a few unexpected twists in the end. It has that TV feel to it, but it does well what it sets out to do; entertain those less demanding. This is no Chinatown, but it's a solid mystery none the less.

A tough cop is taken off a major drug case because of his 'cowboy' antics and finds himself assigned to a case where all he has is a severed hand floating in the water. Luckily for him the hand still had fingers so the prints lead us to a missing city hall employee.

Exploring the girl's past leads us into involvement with a Chinese drug gang which are hero has reason to detest. Next we are led to a pedophiliac elected official, blackmail, several dancers, some murders and dirty cops.

Berenger carries the film singlehandedly and it follows a predictable course until the end. The 10 minute conclusion takes us thru more twists than most mystery writers can concoct in several novels so most viewers should come away well satisfied.

"True Blue", just another Berenger B-flick, is a noir wannabe in which he plays a homicide detective with a past who's trying to get to the bottom of a murder mystery while trying to avoid the bottom of a blond tart involved with the case. This budget conscious flick fleshes out only half the characters in its convoluted and messy plot, relegating the other half to the backstory or endless conversation about the goings-on of a bunch of bad guys we don't get to see. "True Blue" is the kind of flick you might want to watch on late night tv when your choices are limited to vampires and old movies. (C)

I'm unsure as to what I really think of this film. I enjoyed watching it, though it was in reality nothing special. It started rather slowly, and for the longest time you are not sure what the story is about. Are we watching Tom's character, Rem, falling in love, ruining his career, or is the film about the investigation and finding the baddy! Well neither story really worked out. The plot through out the film is complicated and about persons you don't see at all in the movie, though the ending (at least to me) was a surprise (one of this time when you think you've cracked it, but then there is one final twist!). And the love story was unbelievable and looked more like a middle aged man getting turned on by a teen. However, there was something about the film that still kept me interested, so like I say, I'm not completely clear as to how to judge it. I think what maybe kept the film both interesting and enjoyable was very good acting by Lori Heuring, playing the girl Nikki. 5/10