Blood Father - directed by Jean-Francois Richet
Nobody does revenge like Mel Gibson.
I can't think of anyone else I'd rather watch redressing the balance of the scales of justice than him.
After the glorious "Taken" it looked like Liam Neeson might be a challenger to the throne but progressively worse sequels put paid to that so for me Gibson is still the King of getting rid of the scum of the Earth.
In the underrated "Payback" he was left for dead and went after those responsible.
The Lethal Weapon movies saw him dealing with all manner of kidnappers, drug dealers and Patsy Kensit killing sorts.
In "Blood Father" someone has messed with his wayward daughter and being a wayward sort of chap himself he is not going to sit for it.
"Blood Father" is probably going to be talked about as a comeback for Gibson - or at least the start of one.
He has done some interviews lately where he has been frank about some of the events that have diminished his status in the industry over the last few years.
I guess that it is unavoidable that he will have to go through a period of redemption - discussing, apologising, addressing....
Eventually I hope we will just be talking about Gibson the actor, Gibson the director (he has the very promising looking "Hacksaw Ridge" coming out soon) and not Gibson the angry guy.
In a lot of ways his character in "Blood Father" feels like a catharsis of sorts for Gibson.
John Link is an ex-con looking to live clean and sober.
We first meet him giving the sort of honest speech at an AA meeting that contains phrases like "One day at a time" and "I keep telling myself..."
He has a daughter but she has been missing for a few years.
The audience is one step ahead of Link in this regard as we have already seen his pride and joy taking part in a home invasion that includes a homicide or two.
Lydia, coked up and goaded by her no good boyfriend Jonah refuses to shoot a helpless woman and instead shoots him in the neck.
With no other option she phones her Father asking for money and help.
Link picks her up and takes her back to his trailer in the middle of nowhere amidst a small community of self professed Rednecks.
Link is a different character for Gibson but there is a little bit of of Porter from "Payback" and some of Driver from "Get the Gringo" about him.
He earns money as a tattooist working from his trailer and his sponsor Kirby (a great turn from William H Macy) helps him avoid the temptations of the bottle
He has served some hard time but is determined to sort his life out.
So the arrival of a daughter with a drug and alcohol problem being pursued by Mexican drug dealers isn't at all what he needs.
But this is his daughter and he will do anything for her even if it means breaking parole and re-entering the life he has tried to leave behind.
When a trio of cartel thugs shows up looking for the girl Link responds the only way he knows- violent resistance.
The pair are forced to go on the run in his beat up old car.
Erin Moriarty is very good as Lydia - she brings just the right balance of naivety and misguided confidence to the character.
She is both sweet and sexy, smart but lacking in experience and as Link says 'She's every losers lucky day'.
Sexually confident, she uses it in all the wrong places with all the wrong men.
She just doesn't have a good decision in her.
Michael Parks as an old associate of Links named Preacher gets the best monologue of the film with a great swipe directed at Lydia and her generation.
Everything edgy and rebellious has been re-packaged and sold to them on t-shirts and in albums by corporations he says.
She has been bitten by a mosquito that has left an enzyme in her and all the other mosquitoes can smell it - he can smell it.
There is a heavy Sins of the Father theme going on here.
Lydia thinks she is world wise and tough but it becomes clear that even though she is heading down the same dark, dead end path as her Father she is a novice.
This world is way darker than she is ready for.
Link however.... When he loses his cool he really loses it.
Early on a thug gets a knife through his hand.
Even people who he counts as friends only get one chance to screw him over.
This is a violent film about violent people and none are as brutal as Link.
I enjoyed the hell out of this film.
It is a gritty little potboiler of a flick - the sort of film that once upon a time would have starred Lee Marvin or Charles Bronson (who Gibson is starting to resemble with his weathered, tanned face) and could have been directed by Sam Peckinpah.
This time however it is Gibson and a cast of absolutely perfectly selected character actors like Thomas Mann ("Me and Earl and the Dying Girl"), the great Dale Dickey ("Iron Man 3", "Winter's Bone") and Miguel Sandoval ("Clear and Present Danger", "Jurassic Park")
And this might be the last film in which Diego Luna is a talented unknown - he has a little film called "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" hitting screens in less than 100 days that should thrust him firmly and rightfully in the limelight.
The direction by Frenchman Jean-Francois Richet is tight and assured and even if there is a half-hearted attempt at a shaky-cam realism that doesn't work and doesn't suit the material it is forgivable because an awful lot else works really, really well.
He proves adept at action with some great shootout scenes and an unforgettable motorcycle pursuit that ends in gloriously gruesome fashion.
The script from Peter Craig (based on his own novel) and co-writer Andrea Berloff contains a slew of slick dialogue and at least two memorable monologues.
Richet's direction lets the words do the talking and isn't flashy - nor should it be.
He lets the dialogue work and relies on the cast to bring the flash.
Watching this film you can almost feel the desert sun, smell the sweat soaked shirts and the stale stench of spirits.
The weathered faces of Gibson, Sandoval, Macy and Dickey and the cold blankness of Michael Parks is in stark contrast to the youthfulness of Moriarty and Luna.
The former belong in the dry, hot desert - the latter not so much.
This is a film about bad people, worse people and those who still have a chance to be good.
We don't get many flicks like this anymore.... this is a very welcome one.
RATING: 84 / 100
CONCLUSION: A massive amount of fun. Gritty and violent but not devoid of humour Richet gets the tone just right. With a brilliant cast of character actors and a back on top form Gibson this is high grade pulp entertainment that is a rarity these days.
Starring: Mel Gibson, Erin Moriarty, Diego Luna, Michael Parks, William H Macy, Dale Dickey, Richard Cabral, Daniel Moncada, Raoul Max Trujillo, Brandi Cochran, Katalina Parrish, Ryan Dorsey
Screenplay: Peter Craig & Andrea Berloff
Music Score by: Sven Faulconer
Cinematography: Robert Gantz
Cinematography: Robert Gantz
Edited by: Steven Rosenblum
Running Time: 88 minutes
Language: English
Rated: R16 - Violence, profanity & Drug Use
Running Time: 88 minutes
Language: English
Rated: R16 - Violence, profanity & Drug Use
Nobody does revenge like Mel Gibson.
I can't think of anyone else I'd rather watch redressing the balance of the scales of justice than him.
After the glorious "Taken" it looked like Liam Neeson might be a challenger to the throne but progressively worse sequels put paid to that so for me Gibson is still the King of getting rid of the scum of the Earth.
In the underrated "Payback" he was left for dead and went after those responsible.
The Lethal Weapon movies saw him dealing with all manner of kidnappers, drug dealers and Patsy Kensit killing sorts.
In "Blood Father" someone has messed with his wayward daughter and being a wayward sort of chap himself he is not going to sit for it.
"Blood Father" is probably going to be talked about as a comeback for Gibson - or at least the start of one.
He has done some interviews lately where he has been frank about some of the events that have diminished his status in the industry over the last few years.
I guess that it is unavoidable that he will have to go through a period of redemption - discussing, apologising, addressing....
Eventually I hope we will just be talking about Gibson the actor, Gibson the director (he has the very promising looking "Hacksaw Ridge" coming out soon) and not Gibson the angry guy.
In a lot of ways his character in "Blood Father" feels like a catharsis of sorts for Gibson.
John Link is an ex-con looking to live clean and sober.
We first meet him giving the sort of honest speech at an AA meeting that contains phrases like "One day at a time" and "I keep telling myself..."
He has a daughter but she has been missing for a few years.
The audience is one step ahead of Link in this regard as we have already seen his pride and joy taking part in a home invasion that includes a homicide or two.
Lydia, coked up and goaded by her no good boyfriend Jonah refuses to shoot a helpless woman and instead shoots him in the neck.
With no other option she phones her Father asking for money and help.
Link picks her up and takes her back to his trailer in the middle of nowhere amidst a small community of self professed Rednecks.
 |
| It's Mel Gibson as we haven't seem him before but there are shades of past roles such as Porter in "Payback" |
He earns money as a tattooist working from his trailer and his sponsor Kirby (a great turn from William H Macy) helps him avoid the temptations of the bottle
He has served some hard time but is determined to sort his life out.
So the arrival of a daughter with a drug and alcohol problem being pursued by Mexican drug dealers isn't at all what he needs.
But this is his daughter and he will do anything for her even if it means breaking parole and re-entering the life he has tried to leave behind.
When a trio of cartel thugs shows up looking for the girl Link responds the only way he knows- violent resistance.
The pair are forced to go on the run in his beat up old car.
 |
| Erin Moriarty as Lydia |
She is both sweet and sexy, smart but lacking in experience and as Link says 'She's every losers lucky day'.
Sexually confident, she uses it in all the wrong places with all the wrong men.
She just doesn't have a good decision in her.
Michael Parks as an old associate of Links named Preacher gets the best monologue of the film with a great swipe directed at Lydia and her generation.
Everything edgy and rebellious has been re-packaged and sold to them on t-shirts and in albums by corporations he says.
She has been bitten by a mosquito that has left an enzyme in her and all the other mosquitoes can smell it - he can smell it.
There is a heavy Sins of the Father theme going on here.
Lydia thinks she is world wise and tough but it becomes clear that even though she is heading down the same dark, dead end path as her Father she is a novice.
This world is way darker than she is ready for.
Link however.... When he loses his cool he really loses it.
Early on a thug gets a knife through his hand.
Even people who he counts as friends only get one chance to screw him over.
This is a violent film about violent people and none are as brutal as Link.
I enjoyed the hell out of this film.
It is a gritty little potboiler of a flick - the sort of film that once upon a time would have starred Lee Marvin or Charles Bronson (who Gibson is starting to resemble with his weathered, tanned face) and could have been directed by Sam Peckinpah.
This time however it is Gibson and a cast of absolutely perfectly selected character actors like Thomas Mann ("Me and Earl and the Dying Girl"), the great Dale Dickey ("Iron Man 3", "Winter's Bone") and Miguel Sandoval ("Clear and Present Danger", "Jurassic Park")
And this might be the last film in which Diego Luna is a talented unknown - he has a little film called "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" hitting screens in less than 100 days that should thrust him firmly and rightfully in the limelight.
 |
| The superb casts includes William H Macy and Diego Luna |
He proves adept at action with some great shootout scenes and an unforgettable motorcycle pursuit that ends in gloriously gruesome fashion.
The script from Peter Craig (based on his own novel) and co-writer Andrea Berloff contains a slew of slick dialogue and at least two memorable monologues.
Richet's direction lets the words do the talking and isn't flashy - nor should it be.
He lets the dialogue work and relies on the cast to bring the flash.
Watching this film you can almost feel the desert sun, smell the sweat soaked shirts and the stale stench of spirits.
The weathered faces of Gibson, Sandoval, Macy and Dickey and the cold blankness of Michael Parks is in stark contrast to the youthfulness of Moriarty and Luna.
The former belong in the dry, hot desert - the latter not so much.
This is a film about bad people, worse people and those who still have a chance to be good.
We don't get many flicks like this anymore.... this is a very welcome one.
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