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Blood Work (Widescreen Edition)

Blood Work (Widescreen Edition)

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Predictable and Boring
Review: I bought this DVD and wasted my money. Clint's acting was wooden and I thought he was doing that because of his character's heart transplant. But when the whole cast's acting was the same way, it was pitiful to watch. If anyone couldn't figure out who the killer was after 20 mins plus a crispy creme comercial plus the plot was just a generic serial killer B- movie type.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: MediaGab Review
Review: Dirty Harry meets Grumpy Old Men, really that about sums up this movie. Blood Work is a detective movie that Clint Eastwood is at the heart of. A FBI Profiler Terry McCaleb (Eastwood) tries to runs down a suspect outside of a homicide crime scene but has a heart attack before he can catch him. He has to have heart transplant in order to live. He learns that the heart he got was from a murdered woman.

The sister of the murdered woman tracks Terry, who is now retired from the FBI down and pleads with him to look into the investigation. So with a license or the authority he takes on the investigation. The investigation goes from one unbelievable twist to another.

I found this movie to move way to fast. The twists and the conclusions that Eastwoods makes from the clues are really hard to swallow. In particular the part when the sister asks for his help. He basically jumped to this womans rescue without even thinking about what he was getting himself into. He was only sixty days post-op from his transplant surgery.

I think this was Eastwoods last hurray at a detective movie. At least I hope. He should stick to directing as he states he wants to do more of in the making of special feature. I think he wanted one more Dirty Harry moment before he stepped behind the camera.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Blood simplistic
Review: I'll make this short, because after seeing this painful movie, I think I may need a check-up. Let me explain. In the movie Clint Eastwood is only two months from getting a heart transplant. He spends the entire movie with this horrific heart-burn look on his face, constantly rubbing the scar on his chest, and taking pain pills. You think at any moment he's going to drop over. And you find yourself, perhaps sympathetically having your own set of chest pains. This is, of course, not a good thing. Everyone in the movie keeps telling him: "You look awful". And he does. But not awful like a character in a film looks awful. I think of the great Jason Robards in "Once Upon A Time In The West", who also has a pained look on his face for the entire movie... only to discover that he was shot in the stomach before the story began while escaping from prison, so being the tough cowboy that he was, he was "grinning and baring" the pain all the time. However, you got the feeling that this was a character in torment... not the actor himself. In Clint's case, you truly think the actor is about to die any moment. Every time he falls, or is pushed, you find yourself jerking forward, as if saying: "Oh my God... Clint is hurt!". This is not a good thing. To make matters worse he adopts a graveling voice that is almost impossible to understand... and again, you wonder if this was a character choice, of if Clint himself is really on death's bed. Matters are made worse, since Clint directed this himself, and the film is truly directed by someone who has one foot in the grave. The pacing is so slow, as to be nonexistent. Not slow as in his classic "Unforgiven" which used operatic Sergio Leone pacing to create a mood, but the kind of pacing you get when a poor old man is trying to climb stairs with a walker. The script is a mess, which also upsets us Clint fans, since he has always been hyper scrupulous about his scripts... working on them for months with the writer, and then being enormously loyal to the finished product. (I remember reading how the great writer Joel Oliansky actually complained when Clint directed his script to "Bird", because Clint was so loyal to Oliansky's script, he didn't cut a word... something Oliansky actually thought would have helped!) Plot points are thrown out at you, like a blind man stumbling over his guide dog. There's a feeling that this is truly directed by someone in a haze, who doesn't realize how obvious the "twists" are. How way ahead the audience is from the filmmakers, so that when they finally do relieve the "shocking" end, you've already figured it out, gone to the kitchen, made a sandwich and ate it already. The seen-a-million-times-before scenes like Clint convincing the dyspeptic cops to give him clues in the acoustical tiled interrogation room is so badly staged, written and directed, that you truly believe that it was phoned in while Clint took a well deserved nap. I'm a huge Clint Eastwood fan. And to see this sorry mess really does hurt almost as much as the sympathetic chest pains. I doubt if he really is as feeble as this movie makes him out to be. But since he controlled all aspects of the film, and let himself look like someone dragged out from a second-rate old age home for one last fling at movie making... you wonder if this truly is what he's become. I think of Sean Connery, who is actually a bit older than Clint, and how magnificent he looks and acts in his movies these days. Either Clint needs to truly take a long nap and rest off the laurels of a staggeringly productive career, or he needs to fire himself as director and find someone who knows how to make him look more like his old self, and less like an audition for "Six Feet Under".

In closing, I know that he was upset that Warner Brothers buried this movie when it was released. I think he should thank them. When you factor in the cost of mortuaries these days... I'd say he got off cheap.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Don't Bother
Review: This is another example of Hollywood predicability. The movie is so transparent that within the first 15 minutes 90% of the world's population has the killer figured out. What a waste of a good actor (Eastwood). My advice is don't bother watching, renting and especially buying this movie.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Slow-Moving, But Well-Made Thriller in Traditional Style
Review: My three star rating may look unkind, but actually it is 3.5, so don't be mistaken. Clint Eastwood never played any other role than Eastwood (or Dirty Harry), that's true, but the point is, he does it cool, and does it with confidence. He knows what he is doing, even as a director, and "Blood Work" is another proof that he is one of the accomplished directors of America.

Eastwood is ex-FBI profiler Terry McCareb, now retired after one bloody case of murder. Recovered from severe heart attack which hit him during the invetigation, he gets an operation. Now a heart transplant recepient, Terry is advised to live quitely by his doctor Anjelica Huston. But an unexpected visitor comes to him, asking him to help her; her sister was murdered at a grocery shop, and she says she has a good reason to ask Terry to do what she needs.

Back in former business, Terry starts his own search for the killer, and the film displays some actions (including shootings) and activities of Terry with his sidekick Jeff Daniels ("Speed" and "Dumb and Dumber"), but it is Eastwood whom we would watch with certain amount of respect and feeling of "wow". In fact, even though he was born in 1930, he still is in good shape, with his tough and cool images all around. You may say this guy Terry is just an elder version of Harry, and you're right. But when Eastwood does it, he does it better than anyone, blending his machismo with some sort of resignation and sadness which only those veterans can exude.

Once I heard that Eastwood behind the carema never shouts or yells when shooting -- no "Action!" no "Cut!" -- but speaks it quietly (and in Italian too). Probably so. The pace of the film is always assured, showing that director Eastwood perfectly comprehends his subject. No flashy camera work is there; you see his assured touch of direction, which can be neither too fast nor too slow. Like his previous "Space Cowboys", "Blood Work" never runs, but is always moving.

You might find the script of Brian Helgeland ("LA Confidential" "Knight's Tale" and others) a little too transparent, but it keeps you interested even though some of you might detect the truth half on the way. But as I said, it is the film of Clint Eastwood who, as you know, loves jazz music. And like jazz, the film may look too slow and quiet for younger audiences as it goes with leisured pace. But that is his style, and without style there is no cool.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: For Eastwood fans only
Review: A potentially silly story concept is at least grounded here by the no-nonsense solidity of Eastwood, but not even his wonderfully stoic performance can save this from Brian Helgeland's aimlessly wandering screenplay. The Oscar-winning co-writer of 'L.A. Confidential' must have been asleep at the keyboard on this one: scene after scene is marred by repetitive exposition as characters are brought up to date with information the audience already knows. With all that free time to think about other things, it shouldn't take you too long to figure out who's behind the killings and why. When that's finally revealed, the film segues into a cliched and predictable climax. Eastwood's direction is either pleasantly old-fashioned or painfully uninspired, depending on your tastes. In terms of performances, Angelica Houston is slightly uneven (but ineptly written dialogue is probably more to blame), and Jeff Daniels proves that casting against type doesn't always pay off. Is there anything good about this film? Yes, Eastwood. He's magnificent, at least in front of the camera, and fans will be amply rewarded. For non-fans, I hear the book is brilliant so I'd recommend you read that instead.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Blood Work" is Old-School Lordage
Review: Clint Eastwood is one tough hombre. He's back in this movie as a retired F.B.I. profiler who has just received a heart transplant. An imbecilic serial killer wants Terry McCaleb (Eastwood) to join him in a game of cat and mouse. Oh, he shouldn't be messing with Dirty Harry. At 72 years-old and still blowing away the bad guy with a sawed off shotgun, is truly deity. The mystery unfolds and the most obvious person is the killer. Oh well, a good movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Blood Work-Clint's New Version of Dirty Harry
Review: From producer, actor, and director Clint Eastwood comes the new action thriller Blood Work. THe film was interesting, but had a rather simple and straightfoward plot. The action was entertaining, yet not abysmal. Clint stil shares the good vs. bad guy role in this film, but perhaps with a little less suave and sohpistication.
Clint Eastwood stars as retired FBI profiler, Terry McCalleb, during a murder investigation he chases the alleged killer ans soon suffers from a near heart attack. He needs a heart transplant, and gets one, but then he realizes that the donor died. And so he investigates his donor's death. From here we get other exciting performances from Wanda De Jesus, Jeff Daniels, who is not as friendly as he looks and even Paul Rodriguez, the humorous and comical comedian. The film works well on its own terms and is actually a better than average thriller.
Blood Work is rated R for Violence and Language, so not the best of choices for preteens, but perhaps acceptable and adequate. The film's action is reasonable and yet not vociferous and noisy or even intense. The film is decent and enjoyable, but perhaps you should only see this film once. See Blood Work, in theatres everywhere August 9, 2002.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Blood Work
Review: This movie was especially interesting to friends and family of my husband and I. Janurary 2002 my husband did not realize he had a rare blood type. Had it not been for our daughter, an EMT from a nearby town who helped us escape, by minutes, a surgons scapel, 5 nurses, an ER Dr. and a third DR. A conspiracy to commit murder, not to repair the divitular bleed he had, but who was, (according to the medical records we had to fight to get copies of) was preparing to murder my husband for his organs. Bizarre? Believe me, a month in the hospital we escaped to, weeks in ICU, and $121,000, that is just the amount our health insurance company paid this year! Is this movie real? More real than your worst nightmare!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: NOT A 'BLOOD SIMPLE' TO BE SURE!!
Review: I don't think I have missed too many Clint Eastwood movies , in fact I go back to my teenage TV time and not missing an episode of "RAWHIDE," His name was Rowdy Yates and they were all on a cattle drive.

Blood Work isn't one of his best, but he did a great job. I was convinced he had an heart attack, in fact it was a little annoying, as I thought he was going to have a real one. I imagine this is his swan song as far as shoot'em up run 'em down movies of his younger years. And why not! It would still be good to see him in any detective work, forensic or otherwise. A great actor!

Craciella Rivers, 'Flawless, The Insider,' did a great job as the sister of the murdered girl and whose heart was given to Clint. She tracks Clint (an x FBI agent) down and wants him to find the killer. The story drags a little and Paul Rodriques, city cop 'Ronoldo' display's his angst toward Clint and in another movie, Clint would have slapped him around, but instead he gets the last verbal shot at the raving Renoldo. Very funny scene. I was wondering what Angelica Houston , 'Buffalo 66 ,' Ever After-was doing in this small part as the Dr. taking care of Clint, but then remembered that Clint was a great friend of John Houston, Angelica's father! The plot will be transparent but if you like Eastwood in the raw then you must see this flick. I gave it a 3/5.
ciao yaaah69


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