Black and Blue (2019)

Elevator Pitch: Alicia West is a rookie policewoman in New Orleans, assigned to working in a deprived neighbourhood where she had been brought up, before leaving to join the army. While riding with an experienced patrolman, who has left her in the car and gone into a derelict power station she hears shots. She responds and arrived at an upper level in time to see a police detective shoot an possible drug dealer, and she catches the event on her body cam. From that moment her life is in danger from an increasing number of rogue police officers, who have also succeeded in blaming her for the murders, making her a target for the local drug lord, whose nephew was one of the victims. She has combat skills, and is helped by a friend from her youth, but can she survive?

Content: No sex or nudity, or smoking or drinking (I don’t think). West spends some time in her local barrio and is recognised by some friends from her youth who don’t want to know her now she with the police. A bit of time in the police station so we know how the body cams work. West puts some flowers on her mum’s grave in Cemetery No 2. Once she has seen the murders she is constantly on the run, often literally. She is wounded by superglues the gash up. No matter where she goes the villains ferret her out, so constant tension. 

A View: This was a fairly low cost outing so probably made a bit of money. There is a bit of focus on the relationship between black and white people, but civilian and police the main message seeming to be that villains come in all colours. Whether Naomi Harris was a good choice for the role of West may be debatable. She has a bit of box office having been in “Pirates of the Caribbean” and in some Bonds as Miss Moneypenny and won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in Moonlight, but she is still a Brit and it shows. Anyway, a movie to have on while doing something else.

Frank Grillo was the corrupt detective chasing West. He has a bit of a following and has featured in a few films reviewed on this site. They include: End of Watch, The Purge 2 and Zero Dark Thirty.