Black and Blue

First Hit: An engaging drama made good by powerful scenes and excellent acting by Naomie Harris as Alicia West.

West is still considered a rookie cop on the New Orleans police force after three months of duty. She’s an Army veteran with two completed tours in Afghanistan and is not afraid of conflict. She had recently joined the department because she wants to make a difference in her hometown.

Her partner Kevin Jennings (Reid Scott) drives around and introduces her to areas in New Orleans. As he passes various neighborhoods, he points one out and says, we don’t ever go in there, unless it is to help a cop.

She voluntarily takes an extra shift and heads out with veteran cop Officer Deacon Brown (James Moses Black). He makes it clear that he isn’t wearing a body-cam and not to film him, ever.

Getting a call on his cell phone, Brown and West head to a vast empty manufacturing plant. Brown tells West to “stay put,” while he meets up with an informant. She hears shots, leaves the car, turns on her camera, and goes into the building. Following voices, she witnesses undercover cops killing people, execution-style. One of the undercover men sees her and shoots at her wounding her in the side.

She gets away and soon discovers that both the drug dealers and individual cops are out to get the camera and probably kill her as well.

The rest of the film is about her evading the crooked cops and drug dealers who think she’s the one who shot and killed their team members.

Leading the crooked cops is Terry Malone (Frank Grillo), who has been busting drug dealers, keeping half the captured stash, selling it through other dealers, and then killing them to keep them from talking. His primary enforcer is Smitty (Beau Knapp), who acts like Malone’s mad lap-dog and executioner. If West’s cop camera video gets into the Chief’s hands, Malone and his team will be found out and prosecuted. Malone wants West’s body-cam and would prefer West dead.

The head of the local drug cartel is Darius (Mike Colter), and he’s got a personal interest in who Malone’s team killed as this last killing was his nephew. Malone tells Darius that West killed his nephew.

Because West is on the run, she heads to her old neighborhood and is rejected by her former friends except one, Milo “Mouse” Jackson (Tyrese Gibson). Mouse works at a grocery store, and when West shows up, bleeding, and needing help, he reluctantly gives her assistance because she is an old friend.

There are some wonderful scenes in this film, but the one that stands out to me was when West and Jennings stop at the grocery store to get a coffee. Jennings goes into the store while West gets out of the police car and starts talking to a young twelve-year-old boy. The mother of the boy Missy (Nafessa Williams) yells at West and gets into an argument with her. West, recognizing Missy as an old friend tries to reason with Missy, but Missy disses her and tells her to shut the f*&% up. The layout of the characters, Darius, Missy, Mouse, Jennings, and West are well developed at this moment.

Harris was outstanding as Officer West, who is trying to make a difference in her old neighborhood by seeing people, not color, or anything else. She’s excellent in carrying this message and physically does a great job in this demanding role. Grillo is excellent as the crooked undercover detective. His intensity and attempts to keep everyone in line were perfect. Gibson was absolutely fantastic as the quiet gentle giant who ended up helping West escape all the people after her. Williams was terrific as West’s old high school friend, who had been twisted and hardened by the neighborhood. Colter was sharp as the leading drug dealer in this part of New Orleans. He embodied the intensity and drive of a man protecting what he has. Scott did a great job of feeling caught between two sides as he knew of the crooked stuff going on, but was always the one just looking another way. Black was good as the tough cop turning subservient to Malone when required. Knapp was perfectly unglued as Malone’s killing lapdog. Peter A. Dowling wrote a terrific script that created a high intensity by all the characters. Deon Taylor had everyone on the same page with his direction, and as I previously stated, some of the scenes were indelibly powerful.

Overall: I really enjoyed this film and thought it was well written, acted, and directed.

the Fate of the Furious

First Hit:  With improbable situations, circumstances and action, it was funny enough to make me stay till the end. There is very little about this film that is remotely believable. I won’t mention them here but when you watch it, you’ll know what I mean.

Somehow in the saga of these Furious films, Dom (Vin Diesel) grew close to someone which created a situation where the result has him go against his "family." Anyone who’s seen these series of films, Dom makes “family” the main thing that no one goes against. So, for Dom to go against his family, the situation must be a big deal.

Introducing him to this situation is Cipher (Charlize Theron) whose role is to be the smartest person on the planet, wants to control the world by living on a plane using high tech tools and have the ability to take control of any computer on the planet. By doing so she plans to use Dom to carry out some of her physical missions and she has just the motivation to make him turn away from family.

The government intelligence agency headed by Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) and his new underling Little Nobody (Scott Eastwood) want to find out why Dom stole a concussion device. To do this they pull the rest of the family together and add Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard (Jason Statham) to the mix and spare no expense in wrecking expensive cars, tanks, and guns to find Dom, and why he betrayed “family”.

One of the funniest themes through the film was why Tej (Chris “Ludicris” Bridges) was only ranked 11^th on the most wanted list. He throws a fit about this throughout the film.

With no expense held back on making a film that blows up a whole bunch of stuff, wrecking a fleet full of cars, has a submarine chasing cars, and kills a pile of people, F. Gary Gray took Chris Morgan’s script and made it fun.

Diesel was good. I’m not much of a fan of his character because it is always the same one no matter the film. Theron makes a very good bad girl. She pulled this off and was believable (or as believable as one could make this part) enough to not have me cringe. Russell is great. I loved his popping in and out of the film bringing lightheartedness and smarts. Eastwood is fun as the new agent learning the ropes. Johnson is, well, Johnson. His brutishness and size, especially when he’s walking through the prison in the orange jumpsuit, says it all. He can be intimidating. Statham, although not the size of either Diesel or Johnson, has a look and swagger that makes him an equal of the other two in perceived strength. Bridges is really fun and whether he’s unhappy at being 11^th or in the cold weather, he makes everyone smile. Michelle Rodriguez as Letty is carrying on the role she created in the earlier films. She does tough/soft well. Tyrese Gibson as Roman does a great job of being the guy who thinks things through for the team. Nathalie Emmanuel as Ramsey is a perfect complement to Gibson’s "Roman" as part of the team’s brain trust. Morgan’s script was haphazard, had holes in it, and didn’t tie together well but it was fun. Gray must have had fun directing this crew given the script he had.

Overall:  Do not expect this film to make much sense, but it is funny enough, and has enough fun chases to keep you in your seat.

Fast & Furious 6

First Hit:  It was fun however so many of the stunts were so far fetched that it made it unbelievable.

This is one film in a series of films that highlight fast cars, car chases and some sort of crime.

We begin with everyone who participated in the previous film having some portion of $100,000,000 on which they are living the good life. However they cannot return to the United States because they are wanted for robbery. Also in the last film, Dominic Toretto (played by Vin Diesel) lost his love Letty (played by Michelle Rodriguez) in a fiery explosion.

A government investigator Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) is trying to track down an infiltrator named Shaw (Luke Evans) who is stealing items to make some unimaginable weapon (none of this is really clear because the film is more about the chases). Shaw needs only one more item and Hobbs is worried that he'll get it, so he makes a deal with Dom and his Fast & Furious warriors to stop Shaw.

The deal is that they will get absolute pardons for their previous crimes. But this isn’t the reason why they say yes, they say yes because they learn Letty is still alive and under Shaw's control. Tricks like jumping off a car, catching someone in mid-air and then landing on the windshield of another car moving the opposite way and not getting hurt? Right.... Or maybe it was the plane moving quickly down a runway that must have been 5 or more miles long before the plane even got 30 feed off the ground. Just isn't real - there is no such runway. Or maybe it was jumping from a plane and landing in/on a car some 30 feet below. Nope, not lined up like they were - just isn’t real.

I enjoyed the car chases and driving but that was it. “More” and “bigger” is not necessarily better.

Diesel is OK and I felt that the edge is gone and his ability to be believable has been diminished. Paul Walker as Brian is stronger here than he was in the previous films. Johnson was adequate as the government agent. Jordana Brewster as Mia (Brian’s wife) is good in a minor role. Rodriguez is OK but her interpretation of having no memory didn’t work for me. Tyrese Gibson as Roman was funny and enjoyable to watch. Sung Kang and Gal Gadot as Han and Gisele were good but didn't have enough screen time. Ludacris as Taj was funny as well and I liked the way he and Gibson played off each other. Chris Morgan wrote the screenplay and pushed it farther than needed. Justin Lin kept the film moving but some of the stunts were too unbelievable to buy in to.

Overall:  Action was fun, cars were great, but some of the stunts made it unbelievable and therefore I lost interest.