Blood and Concrete (1991) User Reviews

Fun!

[Nordicnorn · 6/10 · 1 July 2007]

Fun enjoyable, offbeat, and quirky. Starts off with Beals attempted, but interrupted suicide. You then follow Joey Turks (Zane), a sleazy, two bit,criminal through the strangest day in his cheesy,life. All this while wearing horrible and tacky clothes. Add to this a,dead body in the pool, a comic-book-style LA noir cop, and Zane's,Forrest Gump approach to crime, and you get an absolute treat. Beals is,great as the odd, wounded bird of a girlfriend. She has kind of a Wednesday Addams meets Cyndi Lauper thing happening.

It doesn't have a lot of CGI, or big bangs, just some fun dialog and good writing. Fun and entertaining.

Overall: Watch this if you get the chance.

Some blood shed, some laughs too

[videorama-759-859391 · 7/10 · 24 April 2017]

Here's one of those fresh, original films, yet slightly dry, that went well under the radar, but deserves attention. Opening with a bloody opening, not many other bloody parts follow, except for an ugly dead guy rotting away in a pool, where the blood looks like coolay, we follow the misadventures of a loser type guy Zane (tailor made for the role as Joey, a thief, where a dissatisfied, detective (Mcgavin in a great part) is always watching. There are comic hit and misses I found, plus some surprising scenes, sexy Beals, (who's really good here) a used girl with suicidal tendencies, singing for one. Zane of course falls for her, where a dangerous romance ignites, where we meet a collection of dangerous oddball characters, some just oddball, one young dude coming across as David Faustino, who becomes a another victim. These actors all give good performances, James Le Gros, giving us a bit of a laugh, as Beal's last ex. The baddie duo, the fatman and the beefcake, we'll call em', and they do make a cute couple, who kidnap Zane as they think he might know where their bags of heroin of gone. He encounters them a few times throughout the movie, escaping and getting caught again. Take the movie, what you will, depending on your taste, in this offbeat crime comedy, The Dark Backward, another original. The movie is an enthusiastic effort where it's Zane's performance that engages, as a guy who never can really get himself together. You too, don't realize how good looking he was or how much a a good actor he was, especially when watching this.

The power of suggestion

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 6 September 2016]

Billy Zane of Titanic and Jennifer Beals of Flashdance co-star in this rather weird film about a couple of marginal people, a professional carjacker and a punk rocker who get themselves involved in a shipment of a new kind of drug where someone is murdered and the police just leave the body in the guy's swimming pool. It must have really started to smell around there.

The detective on this case is Darren McGavin who's been on the job way too long, but wants to get that last big bust and go out in a blaze of glory.

Some interesting characters such as rock singer Jamie LeGros, epicene drug dealer Nicholas Worth, and his muscular boy toy and personal hit man Mark Pellegrino make the film worth a viewing.

I did like the coda that McGavin put on the end of the investigation for this shipment of pills to one of the protagonists who is dying. There's a famous episode from the Honeymooners where Alice and Trixie do something to Ralph and Norton like what is happening to Worth and Pellegrino the entire story.

The power of suggestion.

Bizarre?...Yes. Entertaining?...Definitely.

[EasyLivin · 22 September 2003]

I've always liked Billy Zane and the parts he plays. Sometimes offbeat, other times erratic, but he always has fun with them. And this tight little flick is no exception. This film reminds me of one of those curious "Indy" movies that comes along every now and then with no particular aim in mind other than to entertain. Granted, the plot has been done before, but it's the characters and the actors portraying them that makes this movie enjoyable. Jennifer Beals looks great, plays her part to perfection, and was surprisingly good singing a haunting rendition of "One Girl In A Million."

Train-wreck cinema

[JZvezda · 4/10 · 16 February 2003]

Found this one during a routine late-night channel-surf. I spied, with my one good eye...

Billy Zane: being held at gun-point, while some thong-clad Brian Bosworth clone orders him to remove his pants and then chases him around the dining room table. "Bart" keeps informing Billy Zane that he plans on making a woman out of him <wink-wink> ...if ya' know what I mean. And you expect me to change the channel?

You know how you just *have* to watch "BeastMaster" when it comes on, even tho' you know you shouldn't? Well that's the deal with "Blood & Concrete: A Love Story" (full titles here folks!) It's odddly compelling, not unlike "Baywatch", the movie "Showgirls" or string-cheese. Having said that... I have no idea what it was supposed to be about. For no reason I can succesfully elocute, this movie reminded of "Vamp", which also seemingly took place in a strange hybrid of Los Angeles via Manhattan Meat Packing District. So there..I've just compared this movie to "Vamp". That pretty much says it all.

I have graciously rated this schlock-fest a '4':

-1 point for the smouldering indie-flicker James LeGros

-1 point for the gay Boss Hogg drug-dealer who we get to see on the crapper

-1 point for Billy Zane's 'House of Style' eyebrows & mostly believeable hairpiece

& -1 point for a Brian Bosworth-clone who spends all his screen time running around in tight, white, nothing-to-the-imagination jeans... while he informs every male character of exactly where he intends to hide the pickle.

Lame little time waster

[=G= · 4/10 · 30 June 2002]

"Blood and Concrete" is a lame little low budget comedy about a small time hoodlum (Zane) who hooks up with a neurotic babe (Beals) and then learns they have something more in common than mutual admiration...specifically a drug called "Libido". Playing out like something contrived by a bunch of drunken college students, this flick invents wacky characters and then has them pop up as necessary to sustain it as it dogs its way through its meager plot. Although the film does have a few funny moments and a hint of a creative edge, it is a sub-B flick which wears out early on and most will not find it worth the time.

A wonderful surprise

[BaiNst · 9/10 · 22 April 1999]

Although the first ten or fifteen minutes of this video may make you wish you'd rented something a little more fast paced, the rest of the film will leave you hungry for more. The quirky humor of this movie is a very unique treat, much in the vein of The Blues Brothers.

The movie is set in a surreal Los Angeles. Our hero, Joey Turks, is a poor excuse for a car thief, who wishes he was a lounge singer (his biggest hero is Frank Sinatra). This in a movie that came out BEFORE being retro-loungelizard was hip. Joey gets caught up in the murder of a drug dealer and some stolen drugs. He is used as a pawn by the police and the nefarious criminal kingpin, but all he wants is to get out of his life of crime and settle down with his new girl, Mona.

This is dark comedy at its finest.

Brain freeze material ........

[merklekranz · 4/10 · 15 January 2015]

Not much here except a well manicured Billy Zane and at least a bunch of weird for weird's sake characters revolving around a plot that would fit on a paper napkin. I'd be the first one to admit I'm a sucker for even marginal dark comedy, but here's an idea, at least have a point. "Blood & Concrete" meanders along for an overlong 97 minutes, introducing one bizarre character after the next, but the story goes nowhere. The odd cartoon-like goings on really wear thin rather quickly, and since none of the characters are even remotely likable, the whole thing becomes a so what. This isn't even close to a good black comedy, in fact it isn't even close to a good movie. - MERK

neo-noir dark comedy you must see

[Holden_Pike · 8/10 · 27 September 1998]

You've probably never heard of this, as it went straight to video, but if you can track down a copy you're in for a treat. This is a really twisted, bizarre little movie that Billy Zane starred in way before he had done Titanic...heck, before he had done Sniper for that matter. It is waaaaay over the top and completely hilarious with a brilliant cast and wonderfully contrived plot. Besides Billy Zane this great cast includes Jennifer Beals (don't miss her perfect song "one girl in a million"), James LeGros, Harry Shearer (up there with Derek Smalls and Mr. Burns as his best characterizations), and Darren McGavin (as good - if not better - a performance than in A Christmas Story). After you see this you'll wonder why you've never heard of it before. Very funny. A great find.

Brilliant Movie

[cypherc · 10/10 · 24 March 2006]

If you get a chance to catch this obscure movie, you're in for a treat. What could be more fun than a wannabe criminal (Joey Turks) who is too honest to get beyond petty thief, being chased by a gay hit-man and his fat crime boss (Spuntz), being framed by an aging police detective (Hank Dick) for the murder of a low-life trash talking' drug dealer, and as fate would have it, finding the girl of his dreams and falling in love - all on the same day. Nevermind the run-ins with the wannabe-masochist ex boyfriend and the criminal turned philosopher turned daddy... No, Joey has bigger problems! It seems that someone has stolen the entire supply of a new street drug called libido from H. Spunz who is very unhappy. Spunz thinks Joey took the drugs and Detective Dick thinks Joey will lead him to Spunz. All Joey wants to do is get out of town.

This brilliantly-written and superbly cast movie is entertaining from start to finish. The characters are so well conceived that you'll laugh just looking at them. The hit-man (Bart) and ex-boyfriend (Lance) are especially funny. Jennifer Beals (Mona) and Billy Zane (Joey) turn in exceptional performances in their roles. There is a certain sweetness about their fateful meeting and subsequent falling in love amidst the chaos. This movie is great fun - not meant to be taken seriously - entirely enjoyable nonetheless. If you get a chance to rent the video or see it on cable, you're in for a treat!

Jennifer Beals and the Heavenly Music of Vinny Golia

[sinan · 10/10 · 22 January 2003]

I watched this movie for Billy Zane, and fell in love with it for Jennifer Beals and the Wonderful Song "One Girl in a Million."

If you watch this movie and immediately don't buy Vinny Golia's CDs, you have much better control than I do.

Put up with the first ten minutes, and you'll be swept off your feet.

Excellent!

[turing77 · 31 January 2004]

This film is a true sleeper. It's on late-night cable a lot, so there must be some recognition of its merits, considering it is such an old film. In a nutshell, this is pure LA noir, with crazy characters, crazy circumstances, and a lot of weirdness goin' on. The cast is superb, with Billy Zane striking just the right note, Darren McGavin turning in a hilarious performance, and the ageless and beautiful Jennifer Beals playing a subdued but nuanced part. (Kudos also to Harry Shearer, for a great cameo.) This film is truly a keeper, full of little moments that are funnier on reflection. (E.g., Bart starts to get amorous, so Joey all of a sudden starts concentrating on his dinner...hilarious.) Great entertainment.

A Classic - Must Watch

[signpermit · 10/10 · 9 May 2020]

Excellent Movie superb acting A Classic A Must Watch

Bizarre and Funny

[havinkeith · 8/10 · 14 March 2021]

This film staring a young Billy Zane is hilarious and bizarre! Zane goes from one trouble situation to the next just barely getting out of it. The hitman great. I love how he is relentless and has a lot of funny lines. If you like small bizarre movies you gotta watch this one!!!