Sunday, May 5, 2024

Blue Steel (1990)

Megan Turner (Jamie Lee Curtis) has just graduated the police academy and is on her first day of patrol when she spots a robbery in progress.  Her partner has stepped away and she is on her own.  She rushes to the scene and gets the drop on the robber.  Despite having him in her sights, the robber dares to try to shoot her.  She unloads her gun.  Unnoticed, Eugene Hunt (Ron Silver) was lying on the floor, one of the many witnesses.  Though an innocent bystander, Hunt grabs the robber's gun and flees.  While Megan finds herself the subject of an Internal Affairs investigation for killing an apparently unarmed suspect, Hunt develops an obsession with his newfound gun and Officer Turner.  He arranges a chance meeting with her and is soon wooing the unsuspecting subject of his obsession.

Turner is both well-developed and yet unexplained.  Multiple people ask why she wanted to be a cop and she never gives a clear answer.  Her father is abusive toward her mother, and neither of them came to her graduation from the academy.  Her father is particularly annoyed that she's a cop.  She has trouble with relationships, which is brilliantly shown with a brief encounter with Howard (Matt Craven) and doomed fling with Eugene Hunt.  She's a loose cannon most of the time, rushing into action without her partners.  By the end of the film, there is no way she should be allowed to remain on the police force.

Eugene is even more of a mystery than Megan.  How did this quite successful Wall Street trader suddenly become a homicidal maniac?  The robbery had a huge impact on him, but it's unclear why.  He becomes increasingly reckless.  Despite being a serial killer, he has crazy plot armor that allows him to roam free and unobserved.  When the detectives determine that he has buried his gun in a particular area, they don't just get a metal detector and find it.  No, they stake out the area and wait.  Oh, that's going to work out great.

Nick Mann (Clancy Brown) is the lead detective on the string of murders that are linked to Megan thanks to her name carved on the shells.  Why are the shells left behind?  They do not eject from a revolver, so Eugene has intentionally left them behind.  No fingerprints?  As far as we see, they didn't check.  Of course, once Eugene is a suspect, Nick becomes Megan's new love interest.  Yeah, her social life is a catastrophe.

Overall, mediocre.  Much as I like the three leads in general, they couldn't make this movie work.  Skip.

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