| BLOOD WORK Rating:  Director: Clint Eastwood Producer: Clint Eastwood Writer: Brian Helgeland Director of Photography: Tom Stern Cast: Clint Eastwood, Jeff Daniels, Angelica Huston, Paul Rodriguez Visit the IMDB page for full cast and crew |
 Click the photo to buy merchandise from Blood Work |
Review by: Dan
Tester
8/11/02
Clint Eastwood's new film, Blood Work, is one of those frustratingly maddening crime mysteries that teases the viewer with a pretty interesting and engaging first half, and then astoundingly devolves into a hideously typical Hollywood finale that does nothing more than insult and laugh in the face of the viewer's intelligence. I guess I should be somewhat happy for the first half, because most films of this ilk don't even try at all, but the final half hour left me so angered and sad that the overall experience was completely ruined.
Clint plays Terry McCaleb, an aging FBI agent who suffers a heart attack while chasing down his archenemy (yes, he has an archenemy). Two years later, he receives a successful heart transplant, and settles into peaceful retirement on a boat in Long Beach Harbor, for a few days anyway. Soon after being discharged from the hospital, he is approached by a beautiful woman (Wanda De Jesus) who wants to find out the identity of the man that killed her sister. He is disinterested, until she informs him that it is her deceased sister's heart that now beats within him. Feeling guilty, he reluctantly takes the case, and it soon becomes apparent (yawn) that it is his mysterious archenemy behind all the fuss.
It is interesting to watch Eastwood (now in his 70's) play the lead character with the limitations and vulnerabilities of a man his age, let alone a serious heart condition. He really is quite good in the role, and I was drawn into the story early on. Credit must be given to these early scenes, but ultimately, the entire film experience leaves you feeling the way you do after a great first date that features great conversation and chemistry, and then the next day your date tells you that you are not "their type." It's fun for a while, but then just total destruction.
Clint Eastwood, when on his game as a director, makes great movies like Unforgive and Play Misty For Me. Other times, it seems he just shows up for a paycheck, and makes movies like True Crime, Absolute Power, and now Blood Work. I can't name any other director that has brought me such unadulterated cinematic joy over the years, but still warrants such trepidation with each new film. He is a cinematic enigma. With Blood Work, maybe the original ending was wrestled away from him by the studio geniuses. Maybe the original ending was "audience tested" and was too clever or different to be accepted by the brain dead sheep filling out the little blue cards. Blood Work was directed by the gifted Eastwood, and written by Brian Helgeland (who also wrote a little something called L.A. Confidential) so I can only assume this is the case. Or else it was just paycheck time again.
Blood Work is constructed as a mystery, but eventually becomes so standard, so ugly and hateful in it's recycled garbage of an ending that I am eternally confused as to why Clint even bothered at all. If there is anyone who can't tell within the first 20 minutes of Blood Work who the "mysterious" bad guy is, there are only two possible explanations. (1) You have spent your entire life in an Afghan cave and have finally ventured out for your first movie experience at the local Kabul cinemaplex, or (2) you are stupid. I will allow for the Afghan cave possibility, and to those people I apologize, but to anyone else, YOU are the reason Hollywood has become a cesspool of wasted ideas and insulting content. So I will try to help you out. In a big budget Hollywood murder mystery like Blood Work, check the cast list for the "big name" star in a supporting role. Then watch the film to see which of them (if there are more than one) couldn't possibly be the villain, because they are so fun loving or seemingly only incidental to the plot. That's the one, that's the killer, without fail. I will call this the "Jeff Daniels" rule from now on. Oops, did I say too much? Who cares? I saved you eight bucks.
NOTE TO HOLLYWOOD: You have been making movies for darn near 100 years now. The same ending over and over and over is just not fun any more. Sure, the sheep will continue to go see your movies either way, but maybe, just maybe, a little more effort on your part could raise the bar a bit. If it isn't too much work, perhaps try an experiment and inject some originality and surprise into your mystery films. Your CINEMA 101 approach to making movies has gotten old; it is time to get your act together and FUCKING graduate. Bluto Blutarsky could have pulled it off in half the time.
But as always, it is only one man's opinion.
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