Denzel Washington became a film star the moment he came on screen in tidy white shorts fit for tropical climes as Chief of Police in THE MIGHTY QUINN/’89. But he moved to A-list perennial when he worked with director Carl Franklin on the first-rate L.A. detective Neo-Noir DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS/’95. So, expectations ran high when Washington & Franklin reconnected for this Chief of Police story, still in tropical climes (now Florida) in less fetching black shorts as uniform. And the film? Inexplicably slipshod. Actually, explicably slipshod. DEVIL adapted by Franklin from a classic Walter Mosley detective novel. TIME an ‘original from Dave Collard, a hack writer with few credits before or since. You’ll see why. Tricked into ‘borrowing’ seized Fed cash for dying mistress Sanaa Lathan to get that European operation, Washington slowly sees it’s all been an elaborate set-up. He’s being played. He takes the fall; someone else takes the cash. But who? Meanwhile, those mean guys from The Fed hot to get their cash back (it’s needed for court), while Washington’s soon-to-be ex (Eva Mendes) starts seeing thru his multiple lies as problems escalate. (Collon must have doted on Kevin Costner in NO WAY OUT/’87, itself a remake of THE BIG CLOCK/’48, as a kid.) Washington’s fine (considering), and Franklin pulls off some nifty action moves, but nothing is believable; and the rest of the acting is (a-hem) inexplicably bad.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK: *Also inexplicable, DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS was initially a box-office bust. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2024/02/devil-in-blue-dress-1995.html
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