As a big fan of Eastwood I'm glad he can still put out a leading role performance in a reasonably decent thriller despite his age (72 this year). He looked suitably rugged 10 years ago in his Oscar winning western UNFORGIVEN and here in BLOOD WORK he looks no different, nevertheless his roles since that great Western have been rather typecast, playing the retired or on the verge of retiring tough cop, secret service agent, thief or even astronaut.
Perhaps in the hands of another actor these characters may have been varied but Eastwood is Eastwood, the legendary movie star who we love or quite frankly insist on being the same. He's always tough and charming and gets the threatening one liners that have dated back to the Dirty Harry days.
So in his latest film he's back on IN THE LINE OF FIRE territory as an ex cop with a heart condition who tortures himself into coming back out of retirement (well he's sort of a part time P.I.) unofficially to hunt down the killer of a woman who after her untimely death donates her heart to Eastwood. This of course he finds out through the victims sister who persuades the already tormented cop turned private eye to investigate.
Well Eastwood turns into Sherlock Holmes remarkably piecing together clues that his younger generation of police officers working his precinct are too incompetent to even concieve. This is the most interesting aspect of the film and it's what keeps you watching, as the mystery unfolds into a bit of a whodunnit while Eastwood's past inevitably comes back to haunt him.
BLOOD WORK remains an enjoyable but formula thriller with cliched characters and Eastwood is given little support despite turns from Jeff Daniels and a rather wasted Angelica Huston. It lacks the pace and tension that IN THE LINE OF FIRE gave us but at least it doesn't go down the embarrassing route of THE ROOKIE more like an average Eastwood thriller that can be filed next to ABSOLUTE POWER and TRUE CRIME.
Perhaps in the hands of another actor these characters may have been varied but Eastwood is Eastwood, the legendary movie star who we love or quite frankly insist on being the same. He's always tough and charming and gets the threatening one liners that have dated back to the Dirty Harry days.
So in his latest film he's back on IN THE LINE OF FIRE territory as an ex cop with a heart condition who tortures himself into coming back out of retirement (well he's sort of a part time P.I.) unofficially to hunt down the killer of a woman who after her untimely death donates her heart to Eastwood. This of course he finds out through the victims sister who persuades the already tormented cop turned private eye to investigate.
Well Eastwood turns into Sherlock Holmes remarkably piecing together clues that his younger generation of police officers working his precinct are too incompetent to even concieve. This is the most interesting aspect of the film and it's what keeps you watching, as the mystery unfolds into a bit of a whodunnit while Eastwood's past inevitably comes back to haunt him.
BLOOD WORK remains an enjoyable but formula thriller with cliched characters and Eastwood is given little support despite turns from Jeff Daniels and a rather wasted Angelica Huston. It lacks the pace and tension that IN THE LINE OF FIRE gave us but at least it doesn't go down the embarrassing route of THE ROOKIE more like an average Eastwood thriller that can be filed next to ABSOLUTE POWER and TRUE CRIME.