Black and White

"Black & White" tells of a tough street-wise female cop (Gershon) and her rookie nice-guy partner (Cochrane) who become embroiled in an Internal Affairs investigation when the mounting evidence in a serial killer case begins to point to Gershon. With plotholes galore, this B-flick plays out like a dime novel on film as its make-it-up-as-you-go story serves up contrivance upon contrivance. Nonetheless, Gershon's character's psychodynamics are sufficiently intriguing to make this a suitable watch for the needy sofa spud into cop flix. (C-)

Devout Catholic O'Brien becomes a cop and is assigned to partner tough cop Hugosian. However when "the left-eye" serial killer turns out to be working out of the precinct O'Brien begins to suspect that Huggs may be even tougher on criminals that she appears.

This is a bog-standard TV movie with a slightly starry cast (Gherson, Silver). The story is pretty poor, with plenty of red-herrings and clues scattering all over the place. However it so clearly is pushing you in one direction that it lacks tension or any sense of interest. Basically all the clues point to Huggs to the extent that you know it's either her or it's building up to a big twist at the end.

The performances are not great. Cochrane as O'Brien is OK - he does ok with his fall from grace into the sin of his partner's life (right up until the final transformation implied by the final shot which is too much to believe). Gherson is good, but overplays her role too much. She has done the tough vamp plenty of times before better than this (Basic Instinct, Bound). Silver just does his usual creepy role and everyone else just moves round in the background.

Overall the plot is boring with a really poor twist at the end - a straight forward plot that sticks a silly twist in to save it's main stars. The performances are mixed but generally only ok. There are better good cop/bad cop movies than this you know!

Gina Gershon is extremely hot in this movie. A tough veteran cop, breaking in an innocent looking young catholic rookie. Although the movie is rather disjointed with some mediocre acting, I love Gershon's sensuality and... The story was strong enough to hold my interest beyond the sexy scenes with Gina. As she goes about 'breaking in' her new partner, the pretext was interesting as well as erotic. Ron Silvers' performance seemed especially poor. Allison Eastwood was a disappointment as well. Her young partner seemed to show some potential. The movie deteriorates rapidly as it gets convoluted. This cast and script should have produced an excellent movie. But, She makes it worth a watch!

'Black & White' is quite a conventional cop story. The script idea is quite interesting - a murder investigation that turns quickly in an internal police investigation involves a young (and Catholic!) cop and his sexy and more mature partner (Gina Gershon). Unfortunately, the good idea leads to a script full of logic holes (a several minutes shooting scene in a hospital at night without anybody hearing, for example!). Directing is heavy and conventional, makes the film difficult to watch, and spoils even the rather surprising final. The only reason that makes this film worth watching is Gena Gershon - she is a good actress, looks more attractive than ever - even in a cops uniform, and the role fits her perfectly. 6/10 on my personal scale.

"Black and White", like Traci Lords' "Exramarital," the bachelor party turned deadly "Stag," and the Alyssa Milano clunker "Below Utopia" (or "Body Count" as it says on video) before it, premiered on HBO as if it was too bad for theatres. Unlike the other three though, "Black and White" is a decent movie. Gina Gershon stars as a "bad cop" who may be on a killing spree as well as fighting the law. "Dazed and Confused" star Rory Chochrane, who is a good Catholic boy, is teamed with her. Gershon's character has been seen before, possibly as Katherine Martell in "Basic Instict." But with the strong performance from Gershon, she seems more real.

Gershon is an immensely talented and underrated actress. Thanks to her "Black and White" is worthy of a look. 2 aND a HaLF STaRs OuT oF FoUR.