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.

The Bride (1985)

Charles Frankenstein (Sting) orders his assistants about the tower as they prepare to give life to his newest creation.  His first creation, the monster (Clancy Brown) eagerly awaits his bride.  The bride of Frankenstein (Jennifer Beals) comes to life and the monster immediately tries to take possession.  Frankenstein isn't ready for that yet and a dispute ensues.  The furious monster rampages and soon there is a fire, the tower is destroyed, and both of Frankenstein's assistants are killed.  Presumed dead in the fire, the monster storms away in the night.

Frankenstein names his latest creation Eva.  He tells a tale of her having been found in the woods, the victim of a lightning strike and amnesia.  Frankenstein plans to make her the equal of a man, displaying a proto-feminist streak.  She becomes a voracious reader and is soon correcting him on who wrote Prometheus Unbound.  Introduced to society, she is pursued by a dashing officer (Cary Elwes), much to Frankenstein's irritation.  Meanwhile, the monster has met Rinaldo the midget (David Rappaport).  Rinaldo, who finds himself bullied by children, recruits the monster and gives him a name: Victor.  Rinaldo's fortunes dramatically improve thanks to his giant companion.  He proposes they travel to Budapest and join the circus.  Victor is just glad to have a friend.

 

Beyond his outburst in the tower, Victor is a surprisingly well-adjusted and friendly fellow though rather dull-witted.  His adventures with Rinaldo are mostly as a side-kick.  David Rappaport hugely outshines Victor and is the best part of the movie.  Sting starts off as a man ahead of his time regarding the equality of the sexes and then devolves into a sexual predator, kind of like a lot of men in Hollywood these days.  Beals progresses rapidly from tabula rosa, to child-like wonder, to rebellious youth, to independent woman.  Clearly, she was put together much better than Victor but her story arc is less compelling.

 

It's okay.