My favorite movie weapon is the shotgun. There’s something I’ve always loved about watching my movie heroes shotgun blast their way to justice and glory. I award extra points for sawed off shotguns! Eastwood doesn’t get awarded the extra points for this scene in BLOOD WORK, but for 72 years old, the man still looked like a badass!
Enjoy my friends.
Here at The Shattered Lens, we’re celebrating Clint Eastwood’s 95th birthday on May 31st. As part of that celebration, I decided to revisit his 2002 film, BLOOD WORK.
BLOOD WORK finds Clint Eastwood as retired FBI profiler, Terry McCaleb (Clint Eastwood), a man who has recently had a heart transplant. Despite the wishes of his doctor Bonnie Fox (Angelica Huston), the beautiful Graciella Rivers (Wanda De Jesus) is able to guilt McCaleb into investigating the death of her sister, Gloria, when she reveals to him that it’s her sister’s heart that is now beating in his chest. Unable to drive due to his heart condition, McCaleb hires his goofy next-boat neighbor Buddy (Jeff Daniels) as his driver. The two set out to find any clue or follow any lead they come across. Eventually McCaleb is able to uncover that Gloria’s killer may be the “Code Killer,” the very same killer that he was after when his heart gave out on him, forcing his retirement. He’s going to do everything he can to catch the killer this time, even if it kills him in the process!
BLOOD WORK puts Clint Eastwood smack dab in the middle of one of my favorite genres, the serial killer film, and the result is somewhat of a mixed bag. On the positive side, it contains a really good performance from a 72 year old Clint Eastwood as the retired FBI guy and recent heart transplant recipient. This character trait strips away Eastwood’s ability to be a Superman as he has been so many times before in his career. As a matter of fact, we feel his pain when a big Russian throws him down, or when he has to dive out of the way of a car trying to run him over. We worry for him when he gets a fever, which could actually kill him. But even in his fragile state, every so often he’ll grab a shotgun and start blasting away at the inhabitant of a car he sees watching him. His character has to rely on his intellect more than his strength and Eastwood is fun to watch in the role, with his performance the highlight of the movie. Of the other performances, I really like Angelica Huston in the relatively small role of his doctor. You believe that she really wants him to get better, and she’s pissed off that he’s gotten himself involved in this murder investigation. I’m not that impressed with Jeff Daniels here. I normally like his work, so I think the problem is that his character isn’t written that well. Wanda De Jesus is a lovely woman, and she has some good moments, but there are a couple of times that she’s way over dramatic, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.
As I mentioned earlier, I usually enjoy serial killer movies, and I did enjoy BLOOD WORK. It hits most of the expected notes of the genre… the serial killer taunting the lawman, the visits to the family members of the victims, the sudden discovery of clues / evidence, the eleventh hour reveal of the killer, etc. With Eastwood at the center of it all as both actor and director, you can’t really go wrong even if the movie does drag some during its middle portion. And even though it’s presented as a whodunit, there’s not a lot of mystery to the identity of the killer. I suspect most filmgoers will figure it out before the final reveal. But at the end of the day, BLOOD WORK is definitely worth a viewing for fans of Clint Eastwood and fans of serial killer movies. Not his best work, but still better than most!
I’ve included the trailer for BLOOD WORK below:
Alex (Anthony Edwards) is a patrolman assigned to the nicest neighborhood in Philadelphia but, after he gets in trouble for pulling over a wealthy businessman (David Clennon), he is told that he can either be suspended or he can take a transfer downtown, to the Diamond Street precinct. Alex takes the transfer, even though everyone on the force says that “not even the Terminator would go to Diamond Street.” Alex gets assigned to work with seasoned Sgt. Dennis Curren (Forest Whitaker), who is still emotionally scarred by the death of his former partner and does not want to have to babysit a naive white cop from the suburbs, especially one who is obsessed with the Beach Boys. At first, Alex struggles with his new assignment and his new partner but, when an old friend is murdered by a notorious hitman (Joe Pantoliano), Alex is determined to crack the case and bring the killer to justice.
Downtown is a combination of other, better cop films: Alex’s situation is Beverly Hills Cop in reverse and his partnership with Dennis is lifted straight from Lethal Weapon. Art Evans is the captain who is always yelling at Alex and Dennis and telling them to drop the case and the character is so familiar that I had to check to make sure that Evans had not played the same role in Lethal Weapon. As the bad guys, Clennon and Pantoliano could just have easily been replaced by Beverly Hills Cop‘s Steven Berkoff and Jonathan Banks and no one would have noticed. The only real difference is that Downtown is neither as exciting nor as funny as those two films. Downtown was directed by Richard Benjamin, who will never be known as a particularly versatile filmmaker and who struggles to balance the fish-out-of-water comedy with some surprisingly brutal violence. Beverly Hills Cops had Eddie Murphy and Lethal Weapon had Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. Downtown has Anthony Edwards and Forest Whitaker, who are both good actors but who both seem to be woefully miscast here. (If Downtown were made today, Whitaker could play Dennis but, in 1990, he was too young to be the cop who was “too old for this shit.”) Of the many Lethal Weapon ripoffs that came out in late 80s and early 90s, Downtown is one of the most forgettable.
Through the Shattered Lens 