An also-ran in theaters but a nifty video find, BLOOD AND CONCRETE-A LOVE STORY, is a stylish, well-paced romp that gives an enervated genre a much-needed infusion of comic brio.
Joey Turks (Billy Zane), is a failed, dimwitted car thief who wants to give up crime, make it big, and get out of town, but not necessarily in that order. In an attempt to get the $400 he needs to leave Los Angeles, he pilfers a television belonging to Mort (William Bastiani), a sleazy criminal,
but the latter comes home unexpectedly and stabs Joey, sending him running for help to stop the bleeding. In a cemetery, Joey meets Mona (Jennifer Beals), a young singer who's about to commit suicide. She stops his bleeding, he stops her suicide, and they fall in love.
The next day, when Mort is found floating in his pool with a bullet in his forehead, a seedy gangster boss, Howard Spuntz (Nicholas Worth), and trigger-happy, explosive detective, Hank Dick (Darren McGavin), both finger Joey as the culprit. The former's anger is compounded by the fact that his
stash of designer love drugs is missing. Joey is now in big trouble, and matters just get worse when he discovers that his new love Mona is hooked on Spuntz's drug, as is her thrash-rocker ex-boyfriend, Lance (James Le Gros). Spuntz's brutal henchman, Bart (Mark Pellegrino), keeps Joey bruised,
breathless and on the run. If he doesn't find the drugs, Bart will kill him, or Hank will put him in jail for murder. And if he doesn't cure Mona of her addiction to the drugs, he'll lose her to the violent Lance, who's eager to resume carnal relations. With all this against him, Joey embarks on a
mad race through the underground rock-and-roll scene and backstreet crime hangouts of Hollywood to find Spuntz's drug and save his skin.
BLOOD & CONCRETE is set in a seedy, neon-lit world of crime lords, designer drugs and entrepreneurial lowlifes that's been hashed and rehashed innumerable times over the past few years, but the filmmaking team of NYU alums Jeffrey Reiner and Richard LaBrie, abetted by Declan Quinn's crisp
cinematography and Pamela Woodbridge's inventive production design, manage to put a fresh spin on run-of-the-mill material.
Billy Zane, who scored as Hughie in Phillip Noyce's gripping DEAD CALM, proves again that beneath his sensuous good looks lurks talent to burn. After the "too much, too soon" success of 1983's FLASHDANCE, Jennifer Beals has been slowly rebuilding her career with interesting roles in modestly
budgeted, offbeat fare. Her impressive turn in BLOOD & CONCRETE proves that she's still very much a contender, as are Reiner, LaBrie and the rest of their talented troupe. (Profanity, violence, sexual situations.) leave a comment