CAN'T ALL ITS ELEMENTS JUST GET ALONG?

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

A COP CORRUPTION drama with a lot more on its mind, ``Dark Blue'' travels down a few too many mean L.A. streets. It could've used a narrative Thomas Guide.

Instead, it's got a by-the-book James Ellroy plot about screwed-up, hopelessly compromised law enforcers that's been married to the equally dysfunctional perspective of screenwriter David Ayer, who last time out gave us ``Training Day.'' Much as Denzel Washington benefited from a vividly contradictory character in that film, Kurt Russell gets a rare opportunity to sink his teeth into a very disturbed and disturbing role here. But it eventually becomes too much of a good thing, and all the passion and dexterity Russell invests in the role is undercut by wildly misjudged, climatic speechifying that's rotten with drunken, self-martyring moralizing.

And just as the Rodney King riots spiral out of control, no less. ``Dark Blue'' has a lot on its mind. But director Ron Shelton, best-known for bracingly intelligent sports comedies such as ``Bull Durham'' and ``White Men Can't Jump,'' never quite manages to get the social and racial issues the movie raises into complementary sync with Ellroy and Ayer's corrosive takes on the personal price of the policing life.

What we do see of the riots is chilling and unnerving (and susceptible to accusations of racism, although circumstances could be said to have made that appearance unavoidable). But what's more uncomfortable is the way in which such a real-life calamity is awkwardly wedged into a bad cop melodrama.

Russell's Eldon Perry is a veteran member of the LAPD's Special Investigations Squad. The son and grandson of officers, he's got all the usual baggage: rage issues, drinking problem, desiccated marriage (to Lolita Davidovich) and an incredibly blurry sense of ethics. But he's also one of the most effective detectives in the department. As such he's a good, loyal soldier to exponentially more crooked SIS chief Jack Van Meter (Brendan Gleeson, using his natural Irish accent in spite of the Dutch name).

At the start of the film, a few days before the King verdict came in, Perry has coached his rookie partner (and Van Meter's nephew) Bobby Keough (``Felicity's'' Scott Speedman) into successfully lying before an inquiry board about a deadly weapons discharge incident. They feel great about getting away with it, although naive Bobby has some slight misgivings. More concerned is Assistant Chief Holland (Ving Rhames), who wants to root out corruption in SIS and, oh yeah, become L.A.'s first African-American police chief.

Then there's a horribly violent robbery at a Korean liquor store. Perry and Keough get the case, then some orders regarding it from Van Meter that make even Perry wonder just how far the law can be bent. The outrageously attractive Keough, meanwhile, unsuspectingly begins an affair with Holland's outrageously attractive aide (and ex-mistress) Beth Williamson (``ER's'' Michael Michele).

A lot more happens, but you get the picture: Those sworn to serve and protect the City of Angels are no angels themselves. This is not news, and about the only way to keep this business intriguing on screen is to detail such tortured souls flawlessly and with unrelenting immediacy, as was done in ``Training Day'' and the Ellroy-derived ``L.A. Confidential.'' Russell makes a Herculean effort to pump life into Perry's hard-charge toward awful self-awareness, but ``Dark Blue's'' overall conception is too faulty for it much to matter.

DARK BLUE - Two and one half stars

(R: violence, sex, language, substance abuse, nudity)

Starring: Kurt Russell, Scott Speedman, Ving Rhames, Brendan Gleeson, Michael Michele, Lolita Davidovich.

Director: Ron Shelton.

Running time: 1 hr. 58 min.

Playing: Wide release.

In a nutshell: Over-the-top tale of the days before the 1992 L.A. riots. The disturbance itself is effectively filmed, but the plot and characterizations feel rote.

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Kurt Russell takes on a darker role than usual as an L.A. cop with questionable ethics in ``Dark Blue,'' which looks at the days leading up to the first Rodney King verdict.