FlashCallahan On her first day on the job, officer Megan Turner shoots and kills the perpetrator of a supermarket hold-up. Since no gun was found on the perpetrator's person or at the scene, she is suspended from active duty. But she is quickly reinstated to the position of homicide detective because a used shell casing from the bullet used in a subsequent murder had her name carved on it. Eventually, the murderer shows himself to her. Commodities trader Eugene Hunt, who she meets following her suspension and starts to see. But he also confesses to her that he was in the supermarket at the time of the hold-up and that he fled the scene with the perpetrator's gun. The shooting caused psychosis which resulted in among other things his obsession with her......I'm in no doubt that the film has endless flaws and gaping plot holes, but if you like Bigelows sense of direction and mise en scene, this is a brilliant film to watch.But seeing it over twenty years after my last viewing, two things struck me. It's very similar to Charles Bronsans' 1983 exploitation thriller 10 til' midnight, am I'm pretty sure that Christian Bale did a little research with this when psyching himself up for his defining role, Patrick Bateman.But take away all the eighties sheen, and the wonderful haunting soundtrack, it's just a by the numbers thriller that we've seen time and time again.Out of all of her movies, this has to be the one that got away, because not many people have seen it, and its hard to find (I came across it on The Horror Channel of all places),The acting is great, especially Silver, who gets the eighties yuppy down to a tee, and Curtis as the girl next door cop, having personal problems galore, and then getting it on with the Kurgan.So all in all, its not a bad film by any means, it's visually stunning, but it's just a little too familiar.But, Bigelows next movie was Point Break, and that's one of the greatest films of the nineties.

Linent Yeah, I know. This is an old movie, why write a review about it now? Well, because I just saw it and I was shocked. Kathryn Bigelow did some great stuff, which is a big reason I decided to watch it. Ditto for Ron Silver. Jamie Lee? Eh... Now, I won't lay this on our girl, here, but she plays the absolute DUMBEST cop you could ever imagine. You shoot a man and neglect to secure his weapon on the floor? You shoot him SIX times? What if he'd had an unseen partner nearby? You don't make sure that witness statements are taken before leaving the scene? A man grabs you from behind and you can't think to step on his instep hard enough to distract him? Getting into uniform - with white sneakers? Going after a dangerous killer so you handcuff your partner to the cruiser? So many more - too many to count. She, and Ms. Bigelow, made police look like idiots, and I resent that. Even rookie cops aren't this dumb.

David Love Difficult to know what to make of this one. The cinematography is beautiful, as is Jamie Lee Curtis as New York cop Megan Turner.She has the misfortune to come across a supermarket robber on her first day of active service and ends up killing him. Unfortunately the robber's weapon disappears as it is stolen by Eugene Hunt (Ron Silver) who is a mentally ill trader with a fixation on Turner, who reciprocates his advances! With no weapon and despite witnesses and cctv, she is suspended from her job, giving her time to mess around with Hunt. It's never made clear what she sees in this creep. He's nuts.Clancy Brown plays Nick Mann, fellow detective who teams up with a reinstated Turner to try to find the 44 Magnum killer who always leaves a shell etched with Turner's name at the scene of the killings.The plot is odd but actually quite interesting. Curtis is very watchable, and the director knows it. Overall, a slightly flawed gem, and worth viewing.

zimbo_the_donkey_boy This is an incredible movie. It is the story of a psycho-killer as seen by the psycho-killer. But that isn't explained to you. You're sitting there thinking this is simply another cop flick but then slowly, as nothing makes sense, no logic is followed, not one character acts as a normal person would act--not once, after literally hundreds, if not thousands, of these digressions from real life on earth, you eventually realize that nothing is supposed to make sense. And when I say nothing, I mean not one thing. Not one action. Not one character acts realistically not once. Do you know of that movie that scientists had monkeys in a zoo write once as an experiment? Well that script made more sense than this one. Wow. Not even the extras in Blue Steel acted normally, not once. It makes as much sense to call Blue Steel a police thriller as to call The Three Stooges Meet Hercules a serious drama about the exploration of outer space. Have you ever seen a porno film? Surely the stupidest one in the world must make more sense than Blue Steel. Jamie Lee Curtis, Ron Silver, and the rest are as entertaining acting as ever but, wow, the houseflies I just swatted, as they were repeatedly bouncing off my windows, were acting more logically than any character in Blue Steel. I'm surprised this movie didn't lead to a new slang term for making no sense, e.g. when you see a spider spin cobwebs in your basement until you squoosh him and throw him in the trash, you should say, "Well, so much for that Blue Steeler."