Blood Crime (2002)

Good movie but grossly overrated

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

**SPOILERS** The movie "Blood Crime" has so many inconsistencies in it that it's almost impossible to follow much less comprehend.We have a burned out Seattle undercover cop Daniel Pruitt, John Schaech,who decides to call it quits and move out to the great and wild American North West in Oregon State and go camping together with his wife Jessica, Liz Lackey. It's when Pruitt drives back in town to get some food and drinks his wife is then brutally attacked and raped by an unknown assailant. Finding Jessica in a total state of shock Pruitt drives her back to town only to side swipe a tractor-trailer driven by Bobby M, Paul Glover. If anyone should be outraged it's Bobby, who's truck was almost run off the road, who confronts Pruitt only to have Jessica hysterically accused the totally shocked Bobby of being the person who raped her! This has Pruitt brutally pistol whip Bobby and, after beating him within an inch of his life, dumps him inside the back of his truck without even bothering to call for medical help, for the badly beaten up Bobby, and then leaves the scene.It's later at the local hospital where he took Jessica that Pruitt realizes that his wife, in her hysterical state of mind, had misidentified her attacker. This is when Jessica accuses every man there, doctor & male nurse, who are treating her as being the one who raped her! You could just have imagined what was going through Pruitt's confused mind when Bobby was later found dead in the back of his truck by the local police! Even worse it turned out that Bobby was the son of the town's Sheriff Morgan McKenna, James Caan! McKenna is a man who believed in frontier justice with him being the sole judge jury and executioner of the, innocent or not, accused individual! It's at this point that the movie goes into a giant black hole where nothing at all seems to make any sense. We have the very astute Sheriff MaKenna acting as if he's a total jerk in not noticing the connection that Pruitt had to his son's murder. We also have Pruitt doing his utmost in destroying any evidence that can throw any light in him being at the scene where Bobby was found beaten to death.***SPOILER****The most startling, and unbelievable, revelation in the movie is that the person who did in fact murder Bobby wasn't Pruitt! This made even Pruitt's wife's accusations of Bobby, a totally innocent man, raping her make far more sense then in Pruitt not being Bobby's killer!The film "Blood Crime" is so confusing and disjointed that you completely forget that it's Sheriff McKenna and Pruitt, both lawmen, who are by far the two worst characters in it. Taking the law into their own hands and meeting out justice regardless of the innocence or guilt of those their meeting out "justice" to makes them as bad, if not even worse, then any bad guy in the movie. In fact the person-not Bobby McKenna-who was later identified by Jessica as her rapist seemed to be, without any proof that he did it, far more innocent then the already proved to be innocent and now dead Bobby McKenna himself! A real clunker of a movie "Blood Crime's" biggest crime was that it showed-and even encouraged-the notion that no matter what the evidence is a cop or law enforcer can do anything he pleases, even murder, regardless of where the evidence leads him. Something that the police departments all over the USA have been trying so hard to disprove since the violent and riot torn 1960's when police were held even in lower esteem then the criminals that they were to protect us from!

It was exactly what I expected. Nothing more nothing less. A decent script turned into a decent movie. That's ok with me. I've had fun watching it. The storyline is good, with no exaggerations, and the atmosphere is quite tense. So, I think it is a movie that may not be remembered, but on the other hand it's a movie that delivers what it promises.

"Blood Crime" tells of a detective (Schaech) and his wife (Lackey) whose vacation becomes a nightmare when she is raped and he becomes embroiled in the murder of the suspect and the subsequent investigation spearheaded by a tough rural Sheriff (Caan). "Blood Crime" has the look and feel of a low budget made-for-tv flick with fade-to-black every 15 minutes for commercial breaks and the usual hacked screenplay with flaws, plotholes, and foibles aplenty. With New Zeland standing in for Oregon and drama standing in for common sense, this mediocre flick would have us believe a coroner can not only tell us a gun was used to beat a man to death but he can identify the caliber of the weapon. Or, that a Sheriff can commit a double homicide in the name of justice with impunity...etc. A journeyman no-brainer B-flick with B-flick talent for the sofa spud. (C)

We all pretty much know what to expect from these Movies of the Week, yet this one stands out as a nicely executed, taught suspense thriller. Some plot holes are there but are more then made up for by gritty, top notch performances by the ageless, amazing James Caan and the smoldering Jonathan Shaech.The story itself presents a fascinating conundrum: A young homicide detective flees the big city with his wife in search of a better life. After making the move, the wife is brutally assaulted on the same night that the son of the local sheriff is killed. As the wife had previously alleged that this was the man that attacked her, the detective finds himself at the center of a small town conspiracy. The local cop and the big city detective are then forced to find the perpetrators together.Kudos to the writer Miller for both his keen sense of suspense which always keeps us guessing and his on screen dialogue which absolutely crackles. Stay tuned for the bone crushing ending...Overall, a fun thriller and a slick MOW suspenser...