It’s really slim pickins’ as the summer winds down. The movie studios are releasing some of their real dogs. What else could explain another Elizabeth Hurley movie? But I was in the mood for Clint Eastwood, so I sat there for almost two hours with this one.

I noticed pretty quickly just how old the guy has gotten. Granted, in this movie he plays a guy about to have a heart attack followed by a heart transplant, but still I couldn’t get over how tired he looked and sounded. Clint’s voice is so weak there were times I had to strain to pick up on what he was saying.

Here are the basics – Clint play an FBI profiler named Terry McCaleb. He has that heart attack while chasing a serial murder suspect. Two years later, he finally has a new heart but has retired. That is until the sister of the woman who provided Terry with the new heart shows up and pleads with him to solve her sister’s murder. Let’s stop right there. This lady is named Gracila Rivers and she’s played by an actress named Wanda DeJesus. I’ve never heard of Wanda, but I hope to never see here again. If you want to see what the definition of overacting is, watch this woman. She uses these strange expressions and often they convey exactly the wrong emotions. For instance, she knows she not only has to convince Clint to solve her sister’s murder, but she also has to end up in bed with him. So to do this, she sometimes puts on the seductive look when it doesn’t fit the moment. It was distracting. I felt like I was watching a bad soap opera with this lady’s dopey come-on looks sending what should have been an important scene into the silliness zone. Watch her eyes – when something simple will do, Wanda goes into overdrive with the face acting. And let’s not even talk about the actual sex scene. You’ll want to close your eyes there. Thank God they do cut it short.

While Wanda was not intended to be comic relief, a couple of other characters were. Jeff Daniels plays a neighbor of Terry McCalebs – he’s a quirky, goofy do-nothing who ends up tagging along as McCaleb tries to find the killer. This is by far the best person to watch in the movie. The guy just doesn’t seem to care about anything and shoots off more than a few good lines.

Then there’s Paul Rodriguez as the LAPD cop who is jealous of McCaleb and whose job it is in this movie to act stupid and lazy and angry. Most of the time it’s not amusing. But then again, it’s Paul Rodriguez and there isn’t much to work with there in the first place. By the way, when will he end up with a morning radio show in LA?

This all leaves Clint and Angelica Huston to carry the load and it’s too heavy for their old shoulders. What a waste of Angelica’s talent. She plays Clint’s doctor and gets to say things like – “ Terry, if you take on this murder case,I won’t be your doctor anymore”. Or, when Clint comes back later seeking her help, she emotes, “you’ve got five minutes”.

As for Clint, well, I’ve already stated that he looks worn out. In fact, this movie is written so simply, it’s all kind of an embarrassment. Clint started to look like Andy Griffith on another “Matlock” case. This is the kind of movie they put on CBS on Sunday nights after a “Touched By An Angel” episode. You may find yourself interested in who the serial killer is, or you may not. I was part of the “not” crowd. In fact, once we do see who the killer is, the last ten minutes of this movie are even more embarrassing as Clint and the guy tangle in improbable ways. “Blood Work” is a set back for a guy now considered a legend. I give it a “3.0”.