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-)

This is one of the movies that you stay to watch the sexy actress lead, in this case Gina Gershon, but at the end you say "What? Is that it?". There was plenty of promise with the rookie cop- experienced cop pairing and all the twists that went along. But it all falters towards the end. This is not necessarily a bad film, but it was boring, especially the second half. Gershon is stunning to watch, but that's about all the excitement you'd get in the 90 minutes. Five of 10 is the rating I'd give for this movie that should have achieved so much more.

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!

If I had to give an award for some of the worst acting, it would go to this movie. I was ashamed to see Gina Gershon doing so poorly in the role of a (crooked) uniformed police officer. Not only was the plot predictable, but the acting stunk. It surprised me because Gina did a great job as Castor Troy's girlfriend in FACE/OFF. So, if you want to see a boring, predictable police "whodunnit" flick, then see it. My advice = forget it. James Handy played the Captain, or Lieutenant, or Sergeant, I forgot, but he's the jerk who plays Internal Affairs, or "IAB" as they call it on NYPD BLUE. He's another character who's acting is predictable, and his character is never really liked. But I guess that's what he's good at. Only actor who was worth his salt was Ron Silver. He does a convincing role as an investigator, but towards the end kind of just fades away! SKIP THIS ONE

If you are a Gina Gershon's fan this is the movie for you. The film tries to hard, you are never disappointed when Ms Gershon on screen.

No one plays crazy/troubled like Ms Gershon, with the exception of Ms Leigh. I forget the author, he once stated you can pick the best actor or supporting actor performance for the Oscars, you are always wondering what they are doing off screen. This movie by any standard is not Oscar worthy, but you do wonder what Ms Version is doing off screen.

The supporting cast is adequate, it is Ms Gershon performance which stands above. Rory Cochrane is pedestrian and his character as the naive innocent rookie is standard, actually caring for him: you don't. Ron Silver: you seen one performance you seen them all. Alison Eastwood: I keep waiting for the one performance to separate her from other actresses, this is not the role or performance.

The plot: A naive man becomes involved with a trouble exciting woman.

Similar movies: Body Heat meets Basic instinct.

Worth a late night.