Blood Work (Widescreen Edition)

Rating:
Summary: blood work
Review: this is the worst detective movie i have ever seen. in twenty minutes i solved the crime that it takes clint eastwood's character the rest of the movie to solve. the motive, the crime, etc., are completely given away by the first clue. yet the movie keeps draging on as clue after redundant clue fail to yeild any progress. it's like watching wheel of fortune and all but one letter has been revealed, yet the contestant can somehow not solve the puzzle. absolutely horrendous, please don't waste your money.

Rating:
Summary: Stick with the book.
Review: Finally got around to renting this. I was pretty disappointed in the changes that were made. The book is more detailed and contains a completely different outcome. Jeff Daniels put in a good performance, but the filmakers dropped the ball making him the villian when in the book he plays Terry's good buddy not bright enough to be a criminal mastermind.

Rating:
Summary: Clint! Button That Shirt Up Right Now!
Review: It's good to see that in his twilight years, old squinty eyes, Clint Eastwood is growing comfortable playing grouchy old dudes, because, well, he is a grouchy old dude. This movie is anemic from the beginning. Taken from a wonderful novel by Michael Connelly, Clint plays an old grouchy dude who's just gotten a new ticker because his last one gave out while chasing a serial killer. Run, run, run, THUD. Next, new ticker intact, Clint is hired to find the murderer of a cute black woman by her sister, another cute black woman. Oh, and CBW#2 plays the guilt card on Clint, because he's got his new ticker courtesy of CBW#1. So there's a little bit of investigative work, a little but of huffin' and a puffin', and finally Clint discovers who the serial killer is who was responsible for his first ticker giving out and the murder of the donor of his second ticker. Jeff Daniels plays a doofus that lives next door to Clint. What a stretch. Special warning: Clint takes off his shirt yet again in this film as he smooches on CBW#2. It must be in his contract or something. No one, and I mean, NO ONE wants to see saggy Clint with his shirt off. For a much, much better Clint movie, go rent "Unforgiven".

Rating:
Summary: Blood Work
Review: THE KEY TO CATCHING A KILLER IS ONLY A HEARTBEAT AWAY

This movie is one of the best thriller movies I have seen. But I think the killer was pretty obvious. This movie dosen't have to much action but it is enough to keep you interested in the story. The thing I like most of the movie is that you don't know who is the killer and it just keeps you guessing.

The Special Features on this 1-disc dvd are:

1.CAST AND CREW

2.MAKING BLOOD WORK

3.A COVERSATION IN SPANISH WITH CLINT EASTWOOD, WANDS DE JESUS, AND PAUL RODRIGUEZ

4.TEASER TRAILER

5.THEATRICAL TRAILER

THERE IS OVER 33 MINUTES OF SPECIAL FEATURES ON THIS 1-DISC DVD!



Rating:
Summary: Not worthy of the "based on the book" description
Review: The book, Blood Work (Michael Connelly) was excellent, one of my favorite of Connelly's many "cop thrillers". The movie Blood Work so grossly butchered Connelly's book that even the entire ending, including the killer, differs from the book. How and/or why Connelly would allow his name/book to be connected to this drivel is beyond me.

Clint Eastwood as Terry McCaleb is the most unbelievable character in the movie. When reading Blood Work, at no point in time would I have imagined someone like Eastwood as McCaleb. McCaleb is supposed to be in his 40s...Eastwood is most assuredly NOT capable of playing the role of a man in his 40s. The problems with the movie hardly end there, however.

The casting of Graciela was horrid. The chemistry between these two is so incredibly forced in the movie. It took me thinking back to the book to envision that these two really could have had a relationship because onscreen...it was just so far-fetched. The delivery of lines/dialogue was like pulling teeth. Graciela was horribly done and I can't think of a single redeeming thing about the casting of this character.

The casting for the supporting roles was better, but still did not do anything to save this awful flick. The casting for Buddy (Jeff Daniels) and Bolotov were good - they have a glimmer of hope to this waste of film/time/brain cells. Arrango (Paul Rodriguez) was made to seem much more comical than he was in the book and even without having first read the book, Rodriguez did an awful job (or rather, his dialogie was so poorly written that he had no way of doing a decent job with it).

The plot was just ridiculous...the sequence of events and time line was so incredibly unbelievable and the story took so many turns that were just out of nowhere. The movie opens with a totally out of place scene with the so-called "CODE KILLER" (though I don't think they mention a THING about this in the movie, those who read the book will know that's who he's supposed to be). McCaleb has a heart attack (I think...whatever it was, it's not what happened to him in the book) while chasing down the Code Killer. Then the plot skips all over the place from McCaleb getting a new heart, to being visited by Graciela, to the completely random Russian/Bolotov angle (which actually made sense in the book...Bolotov was absolutely pointless in the movie the way it was written)...my head was spinning after trying to decipher the storyline and time line.

THe kicker was that the killer (won't spoil it for anyone who actually would still think watching this piece of garbage is a good idea) is not the killer from the book and that, had I not known the 'true' killer from reading the book, I would have immediately suspected this movie version killer. The "clues" weren't clues so much as shoving the supposed "surprise" in your face and then wondering why no one was surprised at the ending. And the boy figuring it out was just stupid. The way it was written in the book was wonderful...this was a lame attempt at working the boy into the movie in some way (whereas in the book, there was a definite purpose of the boy's inclusion in the story).

All in all, this was a lousy adaptation...one that deviated so far from the book that the only similarities are character names and the occasional tidbit of plot crossover in the very beginning. The suspense was non-existent and the acting was largely terrible. Jeff Daniels and the man who played Bolotov (even though Bolotov was pointless in the movie) gave good, believable performances. The rest ranged from not-so-good (Angelica Huston as the doctor, Tina Lifford as Winston) to bad (Paul Rodriguez as Arrango) to horrid (Clint Eastwood & Wanda de Jesus).

I was really hoping to enjoy this movie because Connelly's books are some of my favorites. But this just made me angry. Don't waste your time and energy on this movie. Please read the book instead! If you've watched the movie but never read the book, I urge you to read the book as it is fantastic!

Rating:
Summary: Makes me want to read the book.
Review: There's really only one reason I bought this movie (well, besides the fact that it was cheap): Clint Eastwood. And though he does turn in an above average performance, it doesn't really save this movie from a quick trip from the new release wall to the discount rack.
The plot's intriguing enough; I won't waste space on it here since it's in the Editorial Review. The twists and turns lead character Terry McCaleb takes to find the killer make the pace of the film enjoyable, and the climax forced a double-take from me.
The acting, for the most part, I found a bit stiff, and the flow of the scenes throughout said little more than "book adaptation". I couldn't help but think as the film progressed of how much better Michael Connelly's story likely is in print. A couple of scenes had me literally rolling my eyes, especially the love scene. It probably fits somehow in the book, but in the film it just seemed placed there in an attempt to hold my interest. Another was the ending itself; although I didn't see it coming, it was very undramatic and drew just an "Oh." from me rather than a "Wow!"
The cameos were appealing; comedian Paul Rodriguez plays a surprisingly grating homicide detective and rival to McCaleb, and Anjelica Huston does well as McCaleb's cardiologist.
Overall, this movie, while an average adaptation, does little more than stir interest to read the actual novel, which is likely a wonderful psychological thriller.

Rating:
Summary: Not A Great Adaption
Review: The book Blood Work by Michael Connelly was fast-paced and edgy. This adaption changed so much that at times the names of the characters were the only link to the book. It should have claimed "barely based on the novel by Michael Connelly". Cause barely would be right. At the action of the girl at the end toward the killer was downright juvenile and cheesy. This was a serious story and some of the people watching this with me burst into laughter at the end. I like Clint, but this was a waste.

Rating:
Summary: blood work
Review: this is the worst detective movie i have ever seen. in twenty minutes i solved the crime that it takes clint eastwood's character the rest of the movie to solve. the motive, the crime, etc., are completely given away by the first clue. yet the movie keeps draging on as clue after redundant clue fail to yeild any progress. it's like watching wheel of fortune and all but one letter has been revealed, yet the contestant can somehow not solve the puzzle. absolutely horrendous, please don't waste your money.