La Cité de la Vengeance

The film got quite bad reviews mainly because it hasn't got a lot to do with Ross McDonald's brilliant novel about a veteran returning to his home town and finding it completely corrupted. This adaptation is more aimed at a teen audience, so the veteran becomes an young man who left as a teenager and the prostitute he befriends becomes a childhood sweetheart. The story is extremely simplified. However, the film is actually quite well made. The storyline and the way it's told resembles more a Budd Boetticher western about the cowboy who cleans up town. The acting/casting is pretty good, the film is fast paced and well told and Ry Cooder's soundtrack is absolutely amazing. There is of course a lot of violence, some of it rather mindless but in the end the cocky avenger gets his come-uppance. I found it a very entertaining and really well put together film and also pretty stylish in a Miami Vice kind of way.

Billy Turner (Judd Nelson) returns to his hometown of Blue City, Florida. The family black sheep promptly starts a bar fight and expects to be bailed out by his mayor father. He is surprised to learn that his father had been murdered. Police Chief Luther Reynolds (Paul Winfield) is not eager to solve the case despite claiming to be his friend. The obvious suspect is his father's slimy business partner Perry Kerch (Scott Wilson) who is also now sleeping with his stepmother Malvina Kerch-Turner (Anita Morris). Billy recruits his former school friend Joey Rayford (David Caruso) to help force a confession out of Perry who had done Joey wrong previously. Joey's younger sister Annie Rayford (Ally Sheedy) helps and falls for Billy.

Director Michelle Manning produced The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles before taking her shot. There's nothing wrong with taking a shot when you get a chance, but there is no doubt that this shot completely missed the mark. First, Judd Nelson is wrong for the role. He's supposed to be hard, but I don't buy it. He is still the guy from Breakfast Club. In a way, Ally Sheedy suffers from something similar. She has no romantic chemistry with Judd. Looking back at her career, she never really had a great romance. Her best may be WarGames and those characters are not staying together. Above all that, I can't buy that nobody is willing to give Billy an alternate suspect. Perry could have thrown him a red herring, guilty or not. A mayor would have multiple enemies. After the dog track incident, Perry would force Luther to gin up some charges for the boys. The story really doesn't make much sense and it's hard to buy the hardboiled Brat Pack.

I saw this movie in the theaters in 1986 as a freshman in college when I was really in to bad movies. "Good movies are a dime a dozen, but bad movies are forever" I used to say. This film changed my mind. It's poorly acted, and directed, and written, and utterly unlikable. It is not, however, bad enough to be truly remarkable (like, say, "Crush Groove"), nor bad enough to serve as a cautionary example (Like, say, "Psycho Girls") it's simply a vanity piece with two over-paid, under-talented stars phoning in a "Performance" to get money to spend on coke. Judd and Ally were a couple during the filming of this movie, and yet have less onscreen chemistry than Adam West and Max Gail pretending to be gay in a recent episode of Drew Carey. In the end, this movie set out to leave a dead 90 minutes in my memory, and it succeded. This is not a movie for watching, it is a movie for lying down and avoiding.

Judd Nelson playing the part of Burt Reynolds. I always thought that was the best way to describe this film. That description is not meant to take anything away from it. Just a description of it.

Like in many of Reynolds' roles, Nelson plays a smart mouthed wisecracking anti-hero. He's not nearly as sure of himself as his pretends to be. Like many of Reynolds' characters, Nelson's Billy Turner is making it up as he goes along as he seeks rough justice. Unlike many action adventure films, the outcome is in doubt. Turner is not an invincible killing machine.

I remember seeing it when it came out. I thought it was a fun film worth watching. The theme is appealing. I think it's an underrated film and the proof the critics' opinions are just that: opinions and therefore subjective. You have to see it for yourself.

Totally lifeless would be a good way to describe "Blue City". Despite the presence of several interesting character actors, the leads Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy drag everything down with their lifeless performances. The only reason to waste 83 minutes on this unfocused lightweight material is to watch Scott Wilson in the role of an opportunistic bad guy, and the late Anita Morris at her sexiest. Beyond that, the script is severely underdeveloped, especially in regards to motivation for all the mayhem. In the end, the viewer is left with many dangling unanswered questions, and a real sense of W.T.F. Think made for cable or direct to video quality. ................................................................................................................................................ MERK