Blue City

After starring together in The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire, Judd Nelson and Alley Sheedy teamed up for a third time in 1986's Blue City. But unlike their first two outings, Blue City bombed at the box office.

Nelson stars as Billy Turner, the prodigal son of the mayor of Blue City, a small Florida town. Upon his return home, Billy finds out that his father has been murdered. The police chief, Paul Winfield, offers little help. Aided by his best friend Joey, David Caruso, and Joey's sister Annie, Sheedy, Billy sets out to find the killer and avenge his father's murder.

Nelson does an ok job stepping into action star mode, while Sheedy is giving very little to do. It does have a strong supporting cast though. Caruso and Winfield are really good, as are Scott Wilson and Anita Morris as the two people Billy suspects of the murder.

The screenplay, written by Walter Hill, was adapted from a 1947 Ross Mcdonald novel of the same name. The Breakfast Club producer Michelle Manning made her directorial debut with this, and her only feature to date. Miami Vice was huge at the time, and it feels like the filmmakers were trying hard to get the feel of the popular series. I also think that it's kind of an update on Hamlet. If you replaced swords with guns and set it in 1980's Miami, it's basically the same story.

It has a score by regular Hill collaberator Ry Cooder that is very good.

There were lots of problems on the set. Hill had to rewrite his script because the Billy character was originally a lot older, and the studio wanted this to be a brat pack vehicle. They also wanted Manning to direct instead of Hill since she worked on The Breakfast Club. The even replaced actress Jenny Wright with Sheedy for that brat pack vibe. The ending had to be reshot after it tested poorly.

Sheedy later stated that she was disappointed in the film. She said that while shooting it felt that big chunks of the story were missing and was hoping that Manning would be able to fix it in editing, which from her perspective didn't happen. Manning has stated that she felt that critics and audiences were especially hard on her, especially since it was her first feature.

I personally don't think this is as bad as people have made it out to be. It's a quick moving action flick, and I would have loved to see what Manning could have done on a second picture if giving the chance.

It's available on dvd and blu ray.