Pjtaylor-96-138044 One of Eastwood's best and most underrated directorial efforts sees him as an ageing detective fitted with a new heart and haunted by his past. 'Blood Work (2002)' is sort of Eastwood's reflection on the genre that 'Dirty Harry (1972)' helped solidify, in the same way 'Unforgiven (1992)' was an interesting counterbalance to the 'Man With No Name' trilogy so seminal to the western. The picture is generally unglamorously gritty but occasionally slips into silliness and convention. The obvious yet nonsensical villainous reveal is ham-fisted and forced at best, being a wholly unnecessary addition to the book that comes across quite cheap. The flick withstands its few flaws thanks to how entertaining it is, with the fact that its hero feels as though he could keel over from a simple heart-attack any minute making it all the more exciting. 7/10

fjk1138-731-161881 If it weren't for the obvious identity of the killer (I saw it coming a mile away), this was an otherwise well acted and well done Eastwood movie. The story takes its time to develop but does not drag. Seeing Eastwood play a character with a heart condition was an interesting change of pace for him. And Paul Rodriguez was completely annoying beyond words, but this is nothing new for him. It's too bad that the last 20 minutes falls into the typical Hollywood ending, otherwise this could have been a top notch crime drama.

Jakealope This movie has classic unreal serial killer plot, that alone makes it laughable. Serial killers toying with the people trying to track them is a hackneyed old plot line. But this one takes it to new heights. You see, our intrepid FBI profiler, Dirty Harry, almost nailed the serial killer, "The Code Killer" but had a heart attack during the cbase. But Harry winged the perp as the perp escaped. Well two years later Harry got a heart transplant, he gets approached by the pretty sister of the dead Hispanic woman whose heart saved his life. See her sister was murdered in a senseless looking store hold up. Now, a good human angle like that is a welcome plot element. So naturally, even though Dirty Harry is retired and is recovering from the heart transplant 2 months earlier, he agrees to help her find her sister's killer. This leaves a role for his cardiologist, Anjelica Houston, to get all concerned about his health and advice him to give it up. Then we are introduced with the amiable loafer who lives two boats down from him from the marina, the perennial nice white guy Jeff Daniels. Then we have an obnoxious local Hispanic cop, played by Paul Rodriguez, who is there to rail at and dog Harry's investigation. His performance sucked since his character's motivation was pointless. It was like "Here's a role, the bad officious cop who dogs our intrepid hero." So our serial killer spends two years laying low then decides he has to help his pursuer get a new heart. Which he does by cracking the blood bank system and finding someone with the same rare blood type as Harry's then kill them with a shot to the head so their heart can get harvested. Which makes no sense since Harry wasn't a G Man nor pursuing the Code Killer anymore. So was the killer counting on the dead heart donor's sister to find Harry then re-ignite the case? It made no sense. The killer actually physically meets Harry in disguise. Yet Harry, while physically frail but mentally sharp, doesn't notice that he is someone he knows? And why would the killer pull such a stunt except to move the plot along? Just too many dumb pointless plot elements can ruin a film

The Couchpotatoes Crime/mysteries, that's the kind of movies I normally enjoy the most and when Clint Eastwood directs it and plays in it then I think you can say you're in to watch a good movie. It was maybe not his best movie ever but I surely did enjoy it even though I figured out who was the killer long before you're supposed to. Makes me a good detective I guess. The only things that bugged me were the performances of Wanda De Jesus and Paul Rodriguez. I thought their acting was mediocre at best. The star of the movie is of course Clint Eastwood. He's still got it, you can't fault him on anything. His usual rawness is his trademark and it still works perfectly. A good movie to watch once.