Some people have foot fetishes; I have a Kathryn Bigelow fetish. Nobody paints a picture like she does and “Blue Steel” is no exception. From the slick opening credits of a gun being loaded in all of its bluish tinted glory, to the rest of the film which bathes in bluish lighting continually with guns glimmering or blue rays of light shining through, Blue Steel is, without a doubt, a visual treat and lives up to its title in terms of style.

And the story, you may ask? Well, on the upside, it was a lot like "The Hitcher" but with a chick. Being that the script was co-written by genre genius Eric "loves his violence" Red who also wrote the former film, the similarities made sense. Now although I found the character evolution more satisfying in The Hitcher, I still got some kicks out of seeing Jamie Lee become tougher and tougher through this psychopath-induced ordeal. The film did stretch credibility on more than one occasion (Jamie Lee hasn’t met such a resilient villain since “Michael Myers”) but looking back, I forgave its farfetched tendencies fairly quickly. When you're totally into a flick, absorbed in its world, wooed by its visuals...script boo-boos go down much easier. I was slightly annoyed by the redundancy factor though; they get close to nailing the killer, but then he gets away with it somehow. That went on for about three scenes in a row. The "out there" conclusion also pushed too far. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a "fun times" shoot 'em up that had me by the balls, but it's set smack in the middle of downtown New York City! Where were the other cops at? Donut break? The conclusion would have been more comfortable in a Western than in an urban thriller.

On the positive gun blast, the picture contained a unique script structure and served up plot twists galore, all of which made sure to keep me in the game. I mucho dug the family drama as well, even though the cap off to that subplot was an obvious plot device to have the killer pop up again. I also liked how the loon’s motive was always kept ambiguous, they don’t spell it out for us and I made my own conclusion as to why he was doing his dirty deeds (make your own). The film also thankfully brought up a relevant and engaging theme: how it feels to be a female police officer. I mean, let's face it, it’s a male dominated territory; girls get no respect and are always questioned. I found it gnarly to see a flick of this nature having the female lead NOT be a victim. The lady took care of herself and displayed lots of guts throughout. YOU GO, GIRL! The cherry on top of this red-wet cupcake was definitely its yummy violence though. Bigelow and Red already proved their love of plasma to me once before in “Near Dark” and they re-affirmed that gourmet taste here. When people got blown away in this film, they got blown away like-- forget about it!! Blood splashing out, bodies tumbling backwards in slow motion…violence never looked so striking. FUCK YEAH!

Distributor: MGM Home Entertainment

IMAGE: We have the option of watching the flick in Standard "full screen" or  in Widescreen "16.9 Enhanced" mode. The image itself is decent with the occasional grain popping up, but I did find it to be somewhat lacking in definition. On the flip side, this DVD sure beats any used up video tape. You got to take what you get and run, I guess.

Jamie Lee Curtis had a quarrel with the director over the weapon used in the last scene. Kathryn wanted her to use a .44 but Curtis thought it was too much. She wound up using a .38 in the last scene of the film.

When Eugene is reloading his gun in the bathroom, it is clear that he’s reloading with spent casings. Ooops!

At a certain point, Eugene delivers a speech that’s basically a re-write of the key speech from Orson Wells’ "The Third Man".

Eric Red co-wrote Blue Steel with Kathryn Bigelow. They also collaborated on "Near Dark", which Bigelow also directed.

Tom Sizemore plays the tiny part of the robber. He also played in Bigelow’s “Strange Days”. You’ve come a long way, buddy!