Blood and Concrete (1991)

As Good As It Gets

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Here's one of those fresh, original films, yet slightly dry, that went well under the radar, but deserves attention. Opening with a bloody opening, not many other bloody parts follow, except for an ugly dead guy rotting away in a pool, where the blood looks like coolay, we follow the misadventures of a loser type guy Zane (tailor made for the role as Joey, a thief, where a dissatisfied, detective (Mcgavin in a great part) is always watching. There are comic hit and misses I found, plus some surprising scenes, sexy Beals, (who's really good here) a used girl with suicidal tendencies, singing for one. Zane of course falls for her, where a dangerous romance ignites, where we meet a collection of dangerous oddball characters, some just oddball, one young dude coming across as David Faustino, who becomes a another victim. These actors all give good performances, James Le Gros, giving us a bit of a laugh, as Beal's last ex. The baddie duo, the fatman and the beefcake, we'll call em', and they do make a cute couple, who kidnap Zane as they think he might know where their bags of heroin of gone. He encounters them a few times throughout the movie, escaping and getting caught again. Take the movie, what you will, depending on your taste, in this offbeat crime comedy, The Dark Backward, another original. The movie is an enthusiastic effort where it's Zane's performance that engages, as a guy who never can really get himself together. You too, don't realize how good looking he was or how much a a good actor he was, especially when watching this.

Billy Zane of Titanic and Jennifer Beals of Flashdance co-star in this rather weird film about a couple of marginal people, a professional carjacker and a punk rocker who get themselves involved in a shipment of a new kind of drug where someone is murdered and the police just leave the body in the guy's swimming pool. It must have really started to smell around there.The detective on this case is Darren McGavin who's been on the job way too long, but wants to get that last big bust and go out in a blaze of glory.Some interesting characters such as rock singer Jamie LeGros, epicene drug dealer Nicholas Worth, and his muscular boy toy and personal hit man Mark Pellegrino make the film worth a viewing.I did like the coda that McGavin put on the end of the investigation for this shipment of pills to one of the protagonists who is dying. There's a famous episode from the Honeymooners where Alice and Trixie do something to Ralph and Norton like what is happening to Worth and Pellegrino the entire story. The power of suggestion.

Not much here except a well manicured Billy Zane and at least a bunch of weird for weird's sake characters revolving around a plot that would fit on a paper napkin. I'd be the first one to admit I'm a sucker for even marginal dark comedy, but here's an idea, at least have a point. "Blood & Concrete" meanders along for an overlong 97 minutes, introducing one bizarre character after the next, but the story goes nowhere. The odd cartoon-like goings on really wear thin rather quickly, and since none of the characters are even remotely likable, the whole thing becomes a so what. This isn't even close to a good black comedy, in fact it isn't even close to a good movie. - MERK

I've always liked Billy Zane and the parts he plays. Sometimes offbeat, other times erratic, but he always has fun with them. And this tight little flick is no exception. This film reminds me of one of those curious "Indy" movies that comes along every now and then with no particular aim in mind other than to entertain. Granted, the plot has been done before, but it's the characters and the actors portraying them that makes this movie enjoyable. Jennifer Beals looks great, plays her part to perfection, and was surprisingly good singing a haunting rendition of "One Girl In A Million."