Over the years I have seen several Clint Eastwood movies. I have really liked some, thought that others were alright, and haven’t really cared for others. There are still several of his movies that I still haven’t seen because they didn’t look like movies I wanted to see. I saw previews for
Blood Work before it opened in the theaters. I thought it looked interesting, but I still wasn’t sure about seeing it. I saw the movie after it was released on video and DVD. I didn’t pick it out to watch, but it was here, so I watched it. I ended up liking the movie, though it had some things that bugged me a bit or didn’t make a lot of sense at the time.
Terry McCaleb was an FBI profiler. He was well known for helping solve some big cases. He was trying to catch a killer who left strange numeric codes at the murder scenes. Terry spotted the killer outside a murder scene and started chasing him. Terry collapsed, but did manage to shoot the killer. Two years later, Terry was recovering from a heart transplant. He was doing good, but he had strict orders from his doctor not to do much. When Terry got home, he discovered a woman,
Graciella Rivers, waiting on his boat for him. She wanted Terry to investigate a murder. Graciella knew that Terry had a heart transplant because of articles she read in the newspaper. Before she left, she said that her sister
Gloria had been murdered and that Terry received her heart. Graciella wanted Terry to find Gloria’s killer.
Terry didn’t intend to do anything, but he called Graciella later that night and said he would check on the investigation. The next day he talked to
Detective Ronaldo Arrango wasn’t too happy to be talking to Terry and seemed to have an attitude. Ronaldo did share some information about the case and let Terry see the surveillance tape from the store where Gloria was murdered. Terry did some research and discovered that there was a similar murder that took place at an ATM a few weeks before Gloria was killed. Terry talked to
Jaye Winston, a cop he’d worked with on a case before. Jaye did say that they believed the two killings were related someway. She agreed to do what she could to help Terry. He got his neighbor,
Buddy, to drive him around so he could continue his investigation. Terry spent time with Graciella and
Raymond, Gloria’s son. He continued his investigation, though it seemed to be putting his health at risk and upsetting his doctor, Bonnie Fox.
Blood Work was a murder mystery. Terry was working on a serial killer case before he got sick. A few months after his heart transplant, Terry learned that the heart he received came from a murdered woman. He started to investigate and discovered a connection to another murder. There was a motive shared late in movie for the murders. It was a bit extreme and twisted. I didn’t figure out who the killer was, but it did make sense. There was a big clue that I somehow missed. I guess I wasn’t really thinking too much about figuring it out because that clue made it very clear. There were some suspenseful moments here and there in the movie, but it wasn’t really a suspenseful movie overall. The movie was based on the book by Michael Connelly. I haven’t read the book, so I don’t know how close to the book the movie stayed. There was a lot of swearing in the movie. The word that rhymes with luck was used a lot. This was not a movie that children should see.
There were violent scenes throughout
Blood Work since several people were murdered. Two of the murders were captured on video and Terry watched them as part of his investigation. People watching the movie are also able to see those murders. That wasn’t pleasant to see. There were other murders that weren’t shown, but the bodies were discovered. There were several shoot outs and people were shot. Blood was gushing in a few scenes. The movie could be too violent for some people. There were a few action scenes, but this wasn’t an action packed movie.
Terry and Graciella met and developed a relationship over the course of
Blood Work. I really didn’t think there was any romance to the relationship, but they did end up having sex. The relationship didn’t seem that believable to me. I had a feeling that was going to happen. Not because there was great chemistry between them, but because in many of Eastwood’s movies, his character has ended up involved with a much young woman. It seems to be a pattern in his movies. There was only one sex scene in
Blood Work, but that was more than enough for me. There wasn’t really any nudity, though some skin was shown. Clint had his shirt off a few times. I think that was mainly to show off his scar. I really didn’t need to see that either. He is starting to show his age. I am glad he didn’t show off his bare backside like he did in
Space Cowboys though. That was really unpleasant to see.
Terry had a heart transplant a few months before most of the events in
Blood Work. His recovery played an important part in the movie. He was shown taking his temperature and taking pills all the time. His doctor was after him to not over do it. She got furious with him because his temperature went up after he started the investigation. His doctor then refused to treat him anymore and told him to pick up his records the next day. It didn’t make sense to me that she would suddenly refuse to treat him when she was so concerned about him. What kind of doctor refuses to treat their patient? Some things about Terry’s recovery didn’t make a lot of sense to me either. He was just riding around in a car and asking some questions. Terry wasn’t even driving himself. Somehow that made his temperature go up and got his doctor upset with him. I really didn’t understand why that would make his temperature go up. It wasn’t like he was out running a marathon or hanging out with extremely sick, contagious people. Later in the movie, Terry was running after a car, shooting a shot gun - with it braced up tight against his chest - and jumping out of the way of being run over at the last second. All of that evidently had no effect on him at all. I would think all of that would have caused him more trouble than riding around in a car and asking questions.
Terry’s medical condition was important to the plot of
Blood Work, but other than showing him take his medicine, check his temperature, and go through some nasty looking tests, there wasn’t a lot about his condition that was focused on. There wasn’t an explanation for why doing anything other than sitting around on his boat could cause him problems. Why was taking a ride in a car and talking to a few people so dangerous for him? I read a book once in which a main character had a heart transplant. She wasn’t told to sit around and not do much. She seemed to be able to resume her life. I also think I remember from another movie that transplant patients are supposed to do some exercising after the surgery to help circulation and keep their muscles limber. It would have been nice if there had been a little more explanation on the medical issues and why Terry’s doctor wanted him to sit around and do nothing. I also thought it might have made things more interesting if Terry had been younger. As it was, Terry was older and already slowing down some because of his age. It could have been interesting to see how a younger, more active Terry would have handled the recovery.
The acting in
Blood Work was good. Clint Eastwood was good and believable in the part of Terry. That could be because he is getting older and slowing down himself, much like his character in the movie. His voice was very scratchy sounding, and that did get on my nerves at times. He was still doing the squinty eye thing he’s done in many movies before, but it wasn’t as bad in some scenes. He was the main character and the focus of the movie, but I didn’t feel like he was that well developed. More emphasis was placed on the investigation than on Terry.
Jeff Daniels was really good as Buddy. I think this was one of his better performances. Buddy lived on a boat near Terry and didn’t seem to do too much. He was very laid back. The role was very different from other roles I’ve seen him play. Wanda De Jesus was fine in her role. She looked familiar to me, but I don’t remember ever seeing her in any other movies. Graciella became more important as the movie continued. She wanted to find out who had killed her sister and didn’t seem to mind that the investigation was putting Terry’s health at risk. She did end up quickly changing her mind on that a little later. Anjelica Houston only turned up a few times. She did fine with her part, though she seemed to be showing her age as well. Dr. Fox didn’t seem like the nicest doctor to me.
CAST
Jeff Daniels - Buddy
Wanda De Jesus - Graciella Rivers
Clint Eastwood - Terry McCaleb
Anjelica Houston - Dr. Bonnie Fox
Tina Lifford - Jaye Winston
Mason Lucero - Raymond
Paul Rodriquez - Detective Ronaldo Arrango
Dylan Walsh - Detective John Walker
Clint Eastwood - Director and producer
Blood Work was entertaining, but it had some faults. I have seen better movies, but I have seen much worse as well. Clint Eastwood fans may enjoy it.
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