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Blood Work on DVD (2002)

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Average rating: 63%
1215620141014
3.0
from 394 members
 
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Jeff Daniels, Anjelica Huston, Wanda De Jesus, Tina Lifford, Paul Rodriguez
Director: Clint Eastwood
Studio: WARNER HOME VIDEO
Run time: 106 mins
Certificate: 15
Genres: Drama
Languages: English
Dubbed: French, Italian
Hearing-impaired: English, Italian
Subtitles: Arabic, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
Released: 30/06/2003
Also Available on: Also Available on: DIGITAL

Brief synopsis of Blood Work

BLOOD WORK, starring Clint Eastwood as retired FBI agent Terry McCaleb, is a mystery thriller about a serial killer whose latest victim was the organ donor responsible for McCaleb's recent heart transplant. When the victim's sister, Graciella (Wanda de Jesus), delivers this strange news to him and asks for his help, he has no choice but to answer her call, against his doctor's wishes. While frisky LAPD officers try to keep McCaleb away because his top-notch profiling skills make their efforts seem feeble, and McCaleb's physical strength and stamina are limited more than ever before, it seems as if the case is destined to go unsolved. But McCaleb's conscience weighs too heavily upon him to let the murderer go free, and the only way to clear his mind and find peace is to throw his full energy into the investigation. McCaleb lives on a boat and is well-acquainted with a lazy, drunken young man, Buddy (Jeff Daniels), who lives on a boat in the same berth, so he enlists Buddy as his driver and assistant. What ensues is an excellent police drama that leads McCaleb through an extensive process of analyzing evidence, questioning people related to the crimes, and breaking codes, and results in a chilling and totally unexpected climax.

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 2 stars out of 5 Radio Times

Life is not easy for Clint Eastwood fans — for those of us, anyway, who claim he is a great director and not just a cigarillo-smoking icon with a mean squint. For every Unforgiven, there's a Heartbreak Ridge or Sudden Impact, films that are not so much bad as just depressingly average. Sadly, this thriller is one of those. Clint plays an FBI agent who leaves the agency after a heart attack. While recovering from a transplant, he is brought out of retirement for one last case — the twist here is that the victim was his organ donor. Apart from that, it's a routine police thriller with an unconvincing romance (with a much younger woman, of course) thrown in. Eastwood's stodgy direction doesn't help and the script from Brian Helgeland, co-writer of LA Confidential, fails to elevate this above the ordinary.

Rating of 1 stars out of 4 Halliwell's Film Guide

Eastwood acknowledges here that age has caught up with him; unfortunately it has also overtaken this somewhat senile thriller that is kept alive only by the expert direction.

Time Out

While pursuing a suspect in a serial killer case, veteran FBI profiler Terry McCaleb (Eastwood) is felled by a heart... Read more on www.timeout.com

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Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 3 stars

loz#6 from BRISTOL , 20/01/2004

Blood Work has a faintly ludicrous premise - an ex FBI/Private Investigator has a heart transplant and after finding out that the donor was murdered is enlisted to track down the killer - but if you can swallow the concept this turns out to be an above average latter day Eastwood thriller. As with much of Eastwoods recent material however, this is a mixture of the excellent and the banal - for every decent plot-twist or piece of character observation, we have scenes that could come from any cheap TV thriller - the animosity between Eastwood and his ex-colleages, the way a Private Investigator can spot obvious clues the police miss (like having a lip-reader translate the killers dialogue from CCTV footage), and of course the grizzled Clint having his way with the leading lady. While I worked out where the plot was going long before it got there, the final twist of who the killer actually is is an excellent one - but unfortnately once revealed the charfacter turns out to be a one-dimensional cackling serial killer. Blood Work is an enjoyable if unspectacular thriller, and while an improvement on Eastwoods films immediately preceeding it, this is still a long way short of his best work in this genre.

  5 out of 6 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starsMorality and Noir

Jude from Caerphilly,Wales , 27/08/2005

'Blood Work' is typical of Eastwood's later work concerning itself as it does with moral issues of life and death. If I had not seen 'Mystic river' or his latest boxing film, I might not have been so attuned to the themes emerging in his work. 'Bloodwork' is a typical genre package of film noir/thriller with the aging hero using his disabilities to bring humanity and tenderness to the plot. There are red herrings[important in investigations] and the outcome is in the end a bit predictable but nonetheless this is worth a look and Eastwood is very good in the role. As a director he brings a gravitas to the genre which makes this a cut above the average thriller. His later work certainly makes the viewer think and again Eastwood is the avenger of the female victim whose investigation is set up in an act of sisterhood. This is an interesting film in the oeuvre.

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 stars

Shirley#8 from BELLSHILL , 19/04/2004

I really enjoyed this film, although I do more prefer Clint Eastwood in Murder Thriller's rather than westerns. Great watching, most enjoyable, certain parts had me on the edge of my seat.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
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Rated - 3 stars

JAMES#143 from LYMM , 17/09/2004

If you like Clint Eastwood films this is an Ok film, if you don't you may find this a little slow paced. Worth a watch.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 3 stars

loz#6 from BRISTOL , 20/01/2004

Blood Work has a faintly ludicrous premise - an ex FBI/Private Investigator has a heart transplant and after finding out that the donor was murdered is enlisted to track down the killer - but if you can swallow the concept this turns out to be an above average latter day Eastwood thriller. As with much of Eastwoods recent material however, this is a mixture of the excellent and the banal - for every decent plot-twist or piece of character observation, we have scenes that could come from any cheap TV thriller - the animosity between Eastwood and his ex-colleages, the way a Private Investigator can spot obvious clues the police miss (like having a lip-reader translate the killers dialogue from CCTV footage), and of course the grizzled Clint having his way with the leading lady. While I worked out where the plot was going long before it got there, the final twist of who the killer actually is is an excellent one - but unfortnately once revealed the charfacter turns out to be a one-dimensional cackling serial killer. Blood Work is an enjoyable if unspectacular thriller, and while an improvement on Eastwoods films immediately preceeding it, this is still a long way short of his best work in this genre.

  5 out of 6 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 3 stars

JAMES#143 from LYMM , 17/09/2004

If you like Clint Eastwood films this is an Ok film, if you don't you may find this a little slow paced. Worth a watch.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
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