Blue Vengeance (1989)
** (out of 4)
Detective McCardle (J. Christian Ingvordsen) is a washed up officer who is still haunted from accidentally shooting his partner while trying to track down a serial killer known as Trax (Mark Weiner). In the present day, Trax breaks out of his mental hospital but he is believed to have been killed. McCardle knows that's not the case but he can't prove it to anyone so he quickly loses his mind while trying to track the killer down.
Not only does J. Christian Ingvordsen act in this film but he also wrote, produced and directed it. I'll be honest and say that BLUE VENGEANCE didn't quite work for me but at the same time I really enjoyed what Ingvordsen was able to do and in fact I give him a lot of credit trying to do what he did. This is the type of film that tries to do a lot of things and in all honesty it probably tries to do too much but at the same time there are some interesting elements here that keep the film fairly entertaining.
The film basically has two different and rather full plots going on. You've got the stuff dealing with the cop who is haunted by his past and it continues to do damage to him today. You've also got the serial killer and his strange reasons, which are detailed as well. Both of these stories eventually collide together and for the most part there's some mild entertainment to be found. With that being said, I don't think either story is full developed and I couldn't help but think that it probably would have worked better had the film focused on one or the other.
As I said, there were some elements that I did like and that includes the two lead performances. I really thought Weiner was very good in the role of the killer and made for a great villain. I also liked the music score, which fit the film perfectly. Another bonus is that the film was shot in New York City so we get some great locations to look at.
BLUE VENGEANCE is certainly a flawed movie that doesn't completely work but at the same time I give the filmmakers credit for at least attempting something with so much going on in it.
