Word: hoblit
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...movie mixes grunge and glitter in the way of a Steven Bochco TV show, which is understandable, since director Gregory Hoblit has won a bunch of Emmys for his work on Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law. The script, by Steve Shagan and Ann Biderman, also partakes of Bochco's strengths and limitations--good dialogue, firmly etched secondary characters (nicely played by John Mahoney and Frances McDormand, among others) but not much suspense. The only potentially scary guy--Edward Norton's weirdo defendant--is safely behind bars most of the time. Diverting without being fully absorbing, this is a film...
Maybe the problem is that the show's creators did not follow Sergeant Esterhaus' advice: they weren't careful out there. Writers-Producers Steven Bochco and Michael Kozoll, Producer Gregory Hoblit and Director Robert Butler devised a "cop show" with no screaming car chases, no shining superheroes or disposable villains, no instant solutions to a ghetto full of predators and wary prey. Each episode tracks a day in the life of the policemen, the "blues," of an inner-city precinct. And at the end of each show, plot strands and predicaments are left hanging to be tied...