Black and Blue (2019)    Screen Gems/Action-Thriller    RT: 108 minutes    Rated R (violence and language)    Director: Deon Taylor    Screenplay: Peter A. Dowling    Music: Geoff Zanelli    Cinematography: Dante Spinotti    Release date: October 25, 2019 (US)    Cast: Naomie Harris, Tyrese Gibson, Frank Grillo, Mike Colter, Reid Scott, Beau Knapp, Nafessa Williams, James Moses Black.    Box Office: $22.7M (US)

Rating: ***

 The opening scene of Black and Blue, a lean and muscular cop actioner directed by Deon Taylor (The Intruder), is designed to deliberately push buttons. A young African-American woman in a hoodie, out for her morning jog, is stopped by police who treat her roughly. One of them asks her what she’s doing in his neighborhood. When it’s discovered she’s a cop too, they claim she “fits the description” of someone they’re looking for. They continue to treat her rudely rather than apologize. They tell her to have a nice day before driving off. From this first scene, you might deduce that Black and Blue is going to be one of those serious-minded dramas addressing racism and profiling by police. It wants to be topical and important. God knows it tries. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite get there.

 All is not lost however. Once you strip away its loftier aspirations, Black and Blue is damn good action flick about a rookie cop on the run from colleagues and criminals for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Officer Alicia West (Harris, Skyfall), back home in New Orleans after ten years of service in Afghanistan, has been on the force for three weeks. She has yet to figure out her new identity as a cop. Her old friends no longer trust her. People in her old neighborhood see the uniform and treat her with disdain. Her fellow cops aren’t sure if they trust her either. She’s new, black and still cares.

West’s troubles begin when she agrees to work a night shift for her regular partner (Scott, Late Night). She doesn’t exactly hit it off with the veteran officer (Black, This Is Us) she’s assigned to. He orders her to wait in the patrol car while he meets with an informant in an abandoned factory. When she hears a shot, she goes in with her gun drawn. She arrives in time to see a dirty cop, Malone (Grillo, Captain America: The Winter Soldier), execute a drug dealer. When they see her, his partner Smitty (Knapp, Run All Night) fires several shots at her, hitting her at least once. The problem is that she caught the entire incident on her body cam. Wounded and alone, she tries to make it back to the station and turn over the footage before Malone and his crew catch up to her.

 Things intensify when Malone tells the gang leader, Darius (Colter, Luke Cage), with whom he’s in cahoots that is West who killed his nephew. He, in turns, puts a price on her head via Twitter. Now all the gangbangers in the neighborhood want her dead too. West gets help from Milo (Gibson, the Fast & Furious movies), an old friend who now works at the local grocery store. Even though it puts his own life in danger, he agrees to help her get the incriminating footage in the right hands.

 Taylor hasn’t had the best track record as of late with three stinkers in a row; Meet the Blacks, Traffik and The Intruder. I wouldn’t say he totally makes up for it with Black and Blue but it’s a great start. It’s a taut, tight thriller brimming with paranoia and tension. West is all alone in an urban badlands not knowing who she can trust. No one is exempt from this, not even her partner who’s supposed to have her back. Sure, there’s a degree of overall predictability to the whole affair but that didn’t keep me from sitting on the edge of my seat at several points. It helps that there’s plenty of action. The chase scenes, especially the foot chase through alleys and yards when the bad guys first go after West, are well executed.

 Harris does a fine job as the rookie torn between two colors. To whom is she most loyal, people of color or of uniform? It’s a delicate balance that all cops of color must maintain. It’s especially difficult in a time when stories about white cops shooting unarmed young black men are all over the news. Harris perfectly captures this aspect of modern day police work. Taylor, on the other hand, drops the ball in this area. He treats the subject in too simplistic a manner. He could have dug deeper. He could have really said something. Then again, why? Not every urban cop movie has to be socially significant. Can’t some of them just be entertaining?

It has good performances all around. Gibson does solid work as Milo especially in one scene where he has a nasty encounter with racist police responding to an alarm at his store. They treat him like a suspect. It’s a powerful moment. Grillo makes a great bad guy, a truly despicable person and an insult to the badge. Colter is similarly good as the vengeful gang leader who will stop at nothing to avenge his nephew. In addition, Taylor strikes a nice balance of slick and gritty. It looks great despite being set mainly in neighborhoods and buildings besieged by crime, drugs and poverty.

Here’s my advice. Don’t go to Black and Blue looking for a message. Instead, take it as a solid, Saturday night, B-level action flick. It works better that way.