A thriller with aspects devoted to social commentary, 2019’s Black and Blue takes us to New Orleans. Alicia West (Naomie Harris) grew up in a poor area and left for the military at the age of 17.

Alicia returns to the area as a rookie cop for the New Orleans Police Department, and she picks up an extra assignment that sends her out with veteran Officer Deacon Brown (James Moses Black). As they stop at a decrepit warehouse, Brown orders Alicia to stay in the car while he tends to a task.

However, Alicia hears gunshots, so she rushes onto the scene. She sees narcotics Detective Terry Malone (Frank Grillo) as he executes some drug dealers.

Unsurprisingly, this shocks Alicia, and she becomes a target when the other cops realize she kept her body camera on the whole time. Alicia flees and finds herself on a hurried mission to get the incriminating footage to the authorities before Malone and company stop her.

Although a small handful of actors can pick and choose their projects with immense freedom, most find themselves with substantially fewer options. For someone like Harris, she seems to either appear as a supporting character in big-ticket flicks or she gets leads in smaller-budget movies.

Movies like Blue. With only $12 million at its disposal, it didn’t enjoy the funds for top names, so that allows a lesser-known like Harris to snag a lead.

None of this comes as a criticism of Harris’s talents, as I think she boasts strong skills. Indeed, I see it as a shame that she appears unable to land starring roles in films that might actually use her skills well.

Blue clearly doesn’t become that film. A messy, incoherent hodge-podge of plot holes in search of a narrative, the movie flops in most possible ways.

Outside of the acting, that is. Harris does well in the lead, as even with a horribly underwritten part, she manages to make Alicia a fairly robust character.

Her co-stars offer good work as well. None of them enjoy roles with any substance, as the film opts for easy clichés, but all manage to add some impact to their characters.

That makes it unfortunate that Blue sticks with such a limp story. The basic tale shows potential, as the challenges that Alicia faces create solid intrigue and excitement in theory.

But only in theory, as the end product never sparks to life. At no point do we encounter any tension, as the story goes from one predictable domain to another.

And it does so in a slow, meandering manner. The movie takes pains to find artificial obstacles for Alicia, and it ignores easy solutions to her problems.

Obviously the filmmakers hope the audience won’t notice these stretches of credulity, and if Blue delivered any excitement, I might not’ve minded these choices. However, since so much boredom occurs, I find myself preoccupied with all the bad decisions and plot gaps.

In the end, Blue feels like a direct-to-video project that managed to earn a theatrical release. Dull and flawed, the movie goes nowhere.

Black and Blue appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This was a generally positive presentation.

Sharpness looked solid. A few shots were slightly soft, but not to a substantial degree, so most of the movie seemed accurate and concise.

No jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. Source flaws were a non-factor, as the movie stayed clean.

Like most modern action flicks, Blue favored a teal tint with a dollop of orange as well. The blue became a pretty heavy overtone and we didn’t get much room for other hues. Within their parameters, the colors appeared solid.

Blacks seemed deep and tight, while shadows were smooth and well-delineated. In the end, the transfer proved to be appealing.

As for the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Blue, it became a peppy mix. With a mix of action scenes, we got a lot of good material from all sides.

Gunfire and other elements zoomed around the spectrum and added a nice sense of activity to the film. Stereo music also worked well, and this turned into a pretty vivid soundscape.

Audio quality seemed fine. Speech was crisp and distinctive, with no edginess or other concerns.

Music was full and rich, while effects came across as lively and accurate. The track boasted good low-end when appropriate. All of this was good enough for a “B+”.

Two featurettes pop up here, and Line of Fire runs four minutes, two seconds. It includes notes from director Deon Taylor, director of photography Dante Spinotti, camera operator Peter Rosenfel, Screen Gems EVP Glenn Gainor, and actors Naomie Harris, Tyrese Gibson and Frank Grillo.

“Fire” focuses on photography - with an emphasis on the body cam – as well as some character/cast notes. Expect a lot of hype and little concrete information.

With Be the Change in the Big Easy, we find a three-minute, 44-second reel. It features Taylor, Gibson, Gainor, Harris, Grillo, production designer Frank Zito III, actor Reid Scott, producer Sean Sorenson, and screenwriter Peter Dowling.

Here we learn about shooting in New Orleans and more character/story/cast domains. Once again, we find promotional material without much substance.

Five Deleted Scenes fill a total of four minutes, 46 seconds. In these, the most substantial comes from “Studio”, a clip in which we get to know more about the Mouse character. It’s a decent exploration of that role, though not one that proves necessary.

Since “Studio” occupies three minutes, 29 seconds, that doesn’t leave much space for the other four. Predictably, they’re short and unimportant.

The disc opens with ads for The Intruder, Bad Boys for Life, Charlie’s Angels (2019), The Grudge (2020), Zombieland: Double Tap and Men in Black International. No trailer for Blue appears here.

Despite actors who give the movie their best effort, Black and Blue never becomes compelling. A slew of clichés in search of purpose, it ends up as a snoozer. The Blu-ray offers very good picture and audio along with minor supplements. This turns into a flat thriller.