“Black and Blue” was a fast-paced, enthralling story that focused on the value of justice, equality and family. It delivered a clear message of the dangers of corruption and the need for integrity, paralleling what needs to be accomplished in our lives. Another great element in the movie was the excellent performances by stars Naomie Harris and Tyrese, who portrayed the intended emotion of the film to the audience.

“Black and Blue” focuses on Alicia West, a rookie police officer witnessing a gang of corrupt cops initiating a police shooting and catching the whole incident on her body cam. Alicia is in a fight against the clock to get back to the precinct to upload the footage and expose them as the police chase her down and try to silence her.

“Black and Blue” is important to be seen in the world that we live in today. It draws attention to the belief that some cops don’t care about people of color, and that they do not protect and serve as they are meant to do. Some may think that these beliefs are justified because the black children who have been  shot over the past few years were not upstanding citizens of the law. Furthermore, the movie doesn’t just portray the wrongness of shooting an unarmed citizen, it shows the effect it can have on everyone in that community. In the movie, when a gun was held to Milo Jackson (Tyrese), the camera focused on his face and the tears falling from his eyes. As the black child was shot, it showed his father grieving and telling another young black man that he “can’t lose [them] both.” In a later scene when Milo and a dirty cop are in the same room, he brokenly asks the officer: “do you know how many nightmares y’all gave me?”. With these powerful scenes, this movie delves into the fear of living as you are because of police shootings.

Representation of police brutality in our country is portrayed in this movie. It portrays people in positions of power who have a mindset of hate and who take advantage of others. It is an important lesson to learn why this is a terrible thing in this world but a good decision that the movie made was that it didn’t overemphasize that. The film focused on topics of police brutality and corruption,but the plot development was also a very captivating element. 

Nobody likes waiting half an hour for a movie to really start. “Black and Blue” concisely established the characters’ roles without filling the beginning with just exposition and did it in a way that never left the audience bored. The rest of the movie got even better. This movie is similar to reminded of “24” — a dramatic series where a man has to complete a mission in 24 hours — because Alicia was trying to get out of the neighborhood and back to the precinct in 12 hours. It would only a matter of time before all the people chasing her found her and killed her. There was not a moment where she was not planning, fighting, or running, and it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole movie.

This movie was a wonderful concept and it was made into a wonderful movie by the powerful performances of the actors. The character of Alicia West was a strong, skilled woman who never gave up and the care, determination, fear, and frustration you could see on her face the whole movie was fabulously delivered by Naomie Harris. This is also true by the heartbreaking scenes of pain Tyrese portrays against the police they hold you by the heart. As well as the realistic behavior that not everyone would readily volunteer to be in this fight or the love that Darius (Mike Colter) holds for his deceased son and the hate for the person that killed him. Darius wasn’t supposed to be a likable character, as he was a drug dealer, but you could feel empathy towards him. The actors really made you feel what was happening. Especially in the action-packed, high stakes last scene where everything came out into the open and showed a test of wills and endurance.

The movie holds a great lesson, is amazingly delivered, and is wonderfully portrayed. This movie was a solid A+.