Blue Steel

MGM/UA Distribution Company | Release Date: March 16, 1990

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

54	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Watch Now

Buy on

Stream On

Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Roger Ebert

The plot is a little of Fatal Attraction, a little of Jagged Edge and a little of Wall Street. It works because it's so audacious in combining elements that don't seem to belong together. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

Blue Steel's greatest pleasure is its smashing cinematography, courtesy of Amir Mokri, but also owing much to Bigelow's distinctive pop aesthetics. The dependable Curtis adds depth to what might have been a stock character; Silver is convincingly vicious and seductive. Read full review

Mick LaSalle

It's a likable action picture that's fun and entertaining even when it's a bit silly. [16 Mar 1990, p.E1]

Jay Scott

Director Kathryn Bigelow, who earlier proved in the vampire movie Near Dark that she has a thing for denim, leather and blood, is merely the overture to the violent shocks and severe sexual confusions (dozens of them) that give Blue Steel its dissonant, disruptive power. [16 Mar 1990]

Staff (Not Credited)

Short on plausibility but preserving the psycho-sexual ambiguities throughout, Bigelow's seductively stylish, wildy fetishistic thriller is proof that a woman can enter a traditionally male world and, like Megan, beat men at their own game. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

A taut, relentless thriller that hums with an electric current of outrage. Director and cowriter Kathryn Bigelow makes the most of her hook - the use of a female star (Jamie Lee Curtis) in a tough action pic - by stressing the character's vulnerability in remarkable early scenes. Read full review

Owen Gleiberman

Blue Steel lacks sustained storytelling craftsmanship, and it never approaches the saturnine intensity of the film it sometimes recalls, Michael Mann’s Manhunter (the greatest thriller of the past decade). But it makes you eager to see what Bigelow could do with a good script. Read full review

Bill Cosford

Given the talent involved -- Bigelow, Curtis, Red -- you figure Blue Steel will break out, show something new. Never happens. It's just a tough little thriller with a long string of plot holes. [16 Mar 1990, p.G5]

Josh Larsen

From the caressing close-ups of a .38 revolver over the opening credits to the climactic image of a spent weapon being dramatically dropped on a car seat, Blue Steel interrogates the notion of gun worship, all within the confines of a shoot-em-up police thriller. Read full review