Review: Blue City

(Formerly at Epinions.com, written in 2013)

 

Troublesome smart-arse misfit Judd Nelson comes back to his hometown after a long exile to learn that his estranged mayor father was murdered a while back. Well, he learns that after he gets thrown in jail for typical barroom thuggery. He decides to stick around to find out what happened and who is responsible, running afoul of not just local gangster and brothel owner Scott Wilson, but annoyed police chief Paul Winfield, who knew Nelson’s daddy well, but wants Nelson to get the hell outta town. Nelson thinks it’s very likely Wilson was involved in his dad’s death, hell he has hooked up with his dad’s trashy girlfriend for starters. He enlists the aid of gimpy former best pal David Caruso to do some digging. Ally Sheedy is Caruso’s sister whom Caruso specifically tells Nelson to keep his hands off. Yeah, that’ll totally happen. ‘Tiny’ Lister plays one half of Wilson’s hired muscle, whilst Julie Carmen plays one of Wilson’s hookers.

 

Every once in a while I like a film that 99.99% of the rest of reviewers seem to hate. Welcome to what is quite possibly the only positive review of this movie on them thar interwebs. Boy do people hate this 1986 film from hilariously named director Michelle Manning, who was producer of “Sixteen Candles”. This was her one and only film directing gig, as she later became the head of Paramount). More importantly, the film is scripted by noted names Walter Hill (writer-director of “The Long Riders”, “48HRS”, and director of “Streets of Fire”) and Lukas Heller (the triple-threat of “Flight of the Phoenix”, “Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte”, and “The Dirty Dozen”). Frankly, I don’t really understand the hate on this one, it’s pretty underrated and doesn’t even have anywhere near as much swearing as Leonard Maltin seems to suggest. Is it a great film? No, it’s fairly familiar stuff full of most of the noir trappings- local gangster, loser coming back to his hometown after his father’s murder, etc. There’s even a greyhound race. It’s no surprise to learn that the source material the film is based on came from the 1940s. It’s classic pulp noir. I also picked the twist, albeit only a couple of minutes early. Some of you will spot it much earlier, but I think good casting helped conceal it from me for a while.

 

But the film also boasts some good performances. Judd Nelson was never much of an actor, but I have to go against the consensus here and say I thought he was perfectly cast in the lead role. He has a bit of an edge, a kind of ‘bad boy’ persona to him that makes him far more acceptable than most young actors of the 80s for a role that has him going up against some very dangerous and tough people. He also makes for a convincing, obnoxious smart arse, as anyone who has seen “The Breakfast Club” (who the hell hasn’t?) can attest to. I actually think this is the one role Nelson was actually born to play. Matt Dillon’s the only other actor of the period I could see coming close to playing this role and I don’t think he’d get the smart arse aspect down as well as Nelson. I guess what I’m saying is that Nelson doesn’t have much range, but this role pretty much is his range.

 

You’ll be shocked that Scott Wilson plays a bad guy here. Absolutely shocked. In all seriousness, he’s one of the most underrated character actors of all-time and it’s great to see him getting some exposure recently on “The Walking Dead” (though I checked out of that show after the second season. I just can’t watch the same zombie stuff for 40 minutes every damn week). This is far from Wilson’s best work, but I put that down to some of the poor dialogue he is given, as the man has never given a bad performance. Ally Sheedy isn’t all that much better than Nelson as an actor, but she and Nelson work rather well together (they appeared in several films together, twice as a couple, well three if you count “The Breakfast Club” as them being a couple). David Caruso, looking about as young as he did in 1982’s “First Blood” also works well with Nelson and Sheedy, but might as well have ‘dead meat’ written on his forehead. African American character actor Paul Winfield, meanwhile, is having more fun than anybody here in one of his better roles of the period. Like Wilson, the man rarely failed to deliver, no matter the role he was given. The one dud in the cast is Julie Carman (“Fright Night II”), who is a bit bland and stilted, but thankfully she’s not around all that much.

 

The film is pretty violent, probably at the insistence of producer and co-writer Hill, who no doubt also suggested his regular composer Ry Cooder (“Streets of Fire”, “The Long Riders”) for the gig here. Cooder contributes a more pop-rock score than his usual bluesy deal, but it’s still good stuff.

 

Based on a Ross Macdonald (“Harper”, “The Drowning Pool”) novel, I think it’s time for a re-evaluation on this B-movie. It’s an OK film, I mean, for a movie directed by a chick (named MAN-ning. Get it? Hilarious) and all. There you go. Every film has at least one defender, and for this movie, as was the case with “Jonah Hex”, “An American Haunting”, “Little Nicky”, and “Deadly Friend”, I am that lone defender. You’re all crazy, I tells ‘ya. Crazy. Anyone who thinks this is one of the worst movies of the 80s needs to go watch some “Friday the 13th” sequels, “Plan 9 From Outer Space”, “Blood Diner”, “Killer Klowns From Outer Space”, and “Rhinestone”.

 

Rating: B-