Dark Blue
United Artists | Release Date: February 21, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
14
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Dark Blue is one of those totally happy surprises that moves so quickly and curves so sharply that it leaves this era's hyped critical hits looking like beached whales. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Goes where all too few films dare to venture these days -- into the heart of moral darkness. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Another harrowingly cynical dirty-cop movie in the recent tradition of "Training Day" and "Narc." Yet it's so much more complex, engrossing and satisfying than those films that the comparison is not entirely fair. Read full review
80
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Shelton's harrowing and compulsively watchable morality play. Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Flaws and all, Dark Blue has a combustible energy that's usually anathema to Hollywood, reopening an old wound that has festered too quietly for more than a decade. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Russell is the reason to go to the theater. He will continue to hold your attention when things around him -– like the storyline -– lose steam and credibility. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
A film of wounding power. It stays with you. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
While Dark Blue may not be easy to watch, it's exceptionally well made. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Not a great movie, but it has moments that go off the meter and find visceral impact. The characters driving through the riot-torn streets of Los Angeles provide some of them, and the savage, self-hating irony of Russell's late dialogue provides the rest. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
It gains a major charge of dramatic energy from Kurt Russell's ferocious acting, almost certainly the best of his career. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Powerful, uneven police drama. Read full review
70
VarietyDavid Rooney
Refreshingly devoid of flashiness or artificially pumped-up action, this consistently gripping, well-constructed police thriller… showcases a tightly controlled performance from Kurt Russell. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Eleven years on, someone in Hollywood has finally worked up the nerve to address the LA riots--but only on the slickest terms imaginable. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
This is ultimately a conversion melodrama, and a clumsy one. But until it goes to hell, it's thrillingly good, a fervid answer to the spate of cop movies that glorify brutality and sanction ends over means. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
In the end, the problem with movies like Dark Blue is that they willfully ignore the systemic, historical, cultural, and class causes of racism in favor of pinning it all on a few bad apples. Sure, that's entertainment. It's also a lie. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
After a decade of silence, surely Hollywood can do better. Read full review
63
USA TodayMike Clark
There's at least one plot element too many here; let your own taste determine which one. Yet until it dissolves into conventional melodrama during a climactic fracas, this fast-paced story is never less than watchable. Read full review
63
New York PostLou Lumenick
Ron Shelton effectively ratchets up the tension without resorting to the stylistic flourishes of a more recent flick about dirty cops, "Narc." Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneRobert K. Elder
Unlike the intrigue and winding switchback of moral mysteries that defined "L.A. Confidential," Dark Blue travels on flat, predictable terrain. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Sensitively directed by Ron Shelton and helped by what just might be the best performance of Kurt Russell's career, Dark Blue is as interesting and successful as it can be within its limits, but those limits make this a more generic film than its makers intended. Read full review
60
SalonCharles Taylor
Shelton has directed Dark Blue in a jacked-up urban thriller style that simply does not play to his gifts. He's a sidewinder, the sort of writer-director who tells his stories through loopy character details and anecdotes. Read full review
60
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Unfortunately, the rest of the movie does not live up to Mr. Russell's performance. Read full review
60
Film ThreatDavid Grove
It’s shocking how much Dark Blue hates cops. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
If this brutal tale of crime and corruption within the upper ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department feels like an updated retelling of "L.A. Confidential," there's good reason. Both stories spring from the dark mind of American crime writer James Ellroy. Read full review
60
Washington PostStephen Hunter
The movie ends not with a bang but a wimp. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
So what will happen? Sadly, some overacting and a bad "And Justice For All"-style speech at the end. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
In the wake of TV's powerhouse "The Shield," Dark Blue comes off as something of a retread, with little of "The Shield's" electric fury, edgy camera work or deft characterizations. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
However misjudged and evidently cobbled together in the editing room, Dark Blue does have the nerve to drive right through the riots with Russell's saber-toothed bigot, implicitly linking the two phenomena and not being shy about the suffering on either side of the combat. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Through it all, though, Kurt Russell gives Dark Blue a bleak integrity -- funny word, given the circumstances -- that almost serves as its redemption.
50
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
In short, Dark Blue suffers from a problem that, however niggling, is likely to hobble any thriller: no thrills. [17 & 24 February 2003, p.204]
40
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
My own view is that, like me, the LAPD was defeated by the movie's incestuously proliferating plots. I've seen Dark Blue twice, and I still don't have a handle on all its comings and goings. Read full review
40
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
We have heard this song before, know it by heart (sadly, as film still can't keep pace with real-life headlines about fake drug busts and a shady LAPD), and still filmmakers can't resist its rhythms. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Ultimately, Dark Blue feels roughly a decade too late with its back story of the Los Angeles riots. Gates’ department had its share of dirty blues, to be sure, but that hasn’t been notable since the smoke cleared back in 1992. Read full review
38
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Creates a hellishly evil portrait of a police department in which every white cop is either a racist thug or an enabler, and every black cop a disgusted observer or crusading hero. Read full review
38
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Dark Blue proves again what a remarkable actor Denzel Washington is. Too bad he's not in it. Read full review
12
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
The movie heads in a disastrous direction: namely, a police academy ceremony... This lets-wrap-this-thing-up moment sucks the life and the honesty out of an otherwise compelling portrait of tainted lawmen, tainted law. Read full review
10
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Imagine finding the will to get up every morning to do another day's work on this stale story tarted up with relevance. Read full review
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