Posted: 08/10/2002

Blood Work

(2002)

by Hank Yuloff

Poor outing for Eastwood as director as best-selling novel is murked up for the big screen.

A quick open note to one of my acting heroes Clint Eastwood: “Jeez, Clint, what happened here? How can you go from directing such good movies as Unforgiven, True Crime, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and even Space Cowboys, to directing this little piece of dreck?”

OK, I’m back. I went to see Blood Work on opening night. Clint Eastwood as FBI Special Agent Terry McCaleb tracking down a killer who keeps leaving him clues with dead bodies. Well, kinda. At the opening of the film we see McCaleb arriving on the scene of another in a string of the aforementioned homicides. When he is leaving the crime scene, he actually thinks he sees the killer and gives chase, only to have a massive heart attack in the process.

Fast forward two years and we see McCaleb getting out of the hospital after a two year wait for a matching heart. The heart he received was from a murdered woman who the police can’t seem to find. Her sister wants justice and tracks down the newly retired McCaleb to get it for her. It’s kind of hard for him to turn down that request and off we go on the hunt for the killer. There are some very nice twists in the story but if you don’t figure out “whodunit” early in the film I would be surprised. It is the why that took most of the movie. Meanwhile, we are shown OBVIOUS clues, and subjected to some horrible, horrible acting along the way. Most notably from Paul Rodriguez. Talk about stinking up the theater.

Rodriguez plays LAPD detective Ronaldo Arrango. He plays the part way over the top, showing us the worst stereotypes all in one role: the doughnut eating cop, the egomaniacal cop who thinks everyone is in on his bust, the dumb Mexican who rants and raves… I cringed every time he came on screen. What happened to the good actor from Tortilla Soup and Ali? I want him back. I also wasn’t in love with Anjelica Huston (Agnes Browne, The Royal Tenenbaums) who plays McCaleb’s doctor. I can only assume it had to be the direction because I have never disliked one of her characters before. The same goes for Jeff Daniels, who plays Buddy Lockridge, McCaleb’s neighbor and self-appointed sidekick. He must have listened to the directing too much to trust his instincts. Who was good?

Eastwood, of course. He didn’t have to listen to the director. And Tina Lifford (the principal in Play it Forward) as Sheriff detective Jaye Winston. She must have ignored the director. I cannot tell you too many of the plot holes because it would give away the ending but here is one example: McCaleb, a seasoned veteran FBI agent, has trapped the bad guy and has knows that people he is trying to rescue, are on an abandoned freighter in the middle of the harbor (how convenient). He heads out there alone without calling for back up. Stupid. Stupid agent. Stupid writer. Stupid plot twist.

There are lots of them.

So I’m going to have to tell you not to waste your time on Blood Work. It was a great story idea poorly executed.

Hank Yuloff lives in Los Angeles where he has loved watching Clint on the big screen since Where Eagles Dare, Kelly’s Heroes and even Paint Your Wagon.

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