The more I think about it, the more I come to realize that Kurt Russell is one of my favourite actors. He also seems to be someone you just want to hang out with.

I didn’t watch Dark Blue when it was originally released, but I remember seeing a whole slew of them on the New Release wall in the video store I worked in. So, I am definitely coming to this one late, but I also really enjoyed it.

With the Rodney King trial and verdict serving as the film’s backdrop, we follow Eldon Perry (Russell) and his partner, Bobby Keough (Scott Speedman) in their work. And we learn very quickly that Perry is not a good cop. He’s on the take, seems a bit racist, and has a hate on that doesn’t see justice the way he does.

That viewpoint, ingrained since his youth, has driven his wife, Sally (Lolita Davidovich), and son, Eldon (Chapman Way), away from him.

He and Bobby work for the equally corrupt Jack Van Meter (Brendan Gleeson). Jack seems to have blackmail material on everyone and is making a mint off of everything. He uses Perry and Bobby as his personal soldiers to carry out his orders.

Bobby is new to the job, and he’s not all in yet, but he will be, through manipulation. His love life takes a hit when he discovers that the woman he’s seeing, Beth (Michael Michele) is working with Chief Holland (Ving Rhames) to bring Van Meter and Perry down.

There are betrayals, twists, and character realizations as these characters, so mired in their grey ambiguity, seem unable to find their way out and clear. What will that cost be?

A solid film, about the power of old white men, the manipulation of the justice system, and police corruption, the film roars along, and Russell is able to walk that line of making you hate and like Perry at the same time.

He can pull off the violence, the arguments, and then, for just a moment, release the vulnerable side so the viewer can see what his choices and his life are doing to him.

Russell is on point in this film, and bolstering him with people like Rhames, Davodivich and Gleeson just makes everything more engaging. It’s a solid film, not one I want to rewatch any time soon, the subject matter is so heavy, but damn if I didn’t love it.

It’s tensely shot, Shelton crafts some livewire moments, like the ambush that escalates the climax. Tying it all in with the Rodney King story makes the film’s commentary and themes about justice, corruption and the police all the more powerful.

A solid film.