Post by petrolino on Apr 5, 2021 2:05:09 GMT
'Blood Father'
Mel Gibson portrays ex-con John Link in Jean-Francois Richet's crime thriller 'Blood Father' (2016), the missing link between ape and man. Erin Moriarty plays his errant daughter Lydia, a teenage runaway from the future who's a poet, a musician and a medic, and only 17. Since running away, Lydia's been holed up with her sleazebag boyfriend, a Donald Trump wannabe real estate tycoon (played by Diego Luna) with a hard-on for power who runs contraband for a Mexican cartel. Drugged, drunk and flirtatious daily, it's like her father says; she's every lowlife scumbag's dream come true.
'I learned the truth at seventeen,
That love was meant for beauty queens,
And high school girls with clear skinned smiles,
Who married young and then retired,
The valentines I never knew,
The Friday night charades of youth,
Were spent on one more beautiful,
At seventeen I learned the truth ...'
That love was meant for beauty queens,
And high school girls with clear skinned smiles,
Who married young and then retired,
The valentines I never knew,
The Friday night charades of youth,
Were spent on one more beautiful,
At seventeen I learned the truth ...'
- Janis Ian
Erin Moriarty
William H. Macy plays neighbourhood watchman and Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor Kirby who oversees a trailer park community living in the desert. Michael Parks is the Preacher, a narcissistic white supremacist who'll back any loser that can make him big money.
Mel Gibson & Erin Moriarty
John Link thrives on old school mayhem and will get medieval on your "ass" in a second. Trouble is, he's out on parole, determined to get straight and keep his nose clean. Other than Kirby and the Preacherman, his only Earthly contact is on the inside, crime kingpin Arturo Rios (played by Miguel Sandoval). Yet he knows he can trust nobody ... not even his duplicitous, double-talking teenage daughter.
Ring Ring ... Ring Ring ...
'If I Laugh' ~ Cat Stevens
I'm not always hot on remakes of movies I love, but I felt French director Jean-Francois Richet showed he could hang with his countryman, horror remake master Alexandre Aja, with the surprisingly entertaining (and thankfully very different) remake 'Assault On Precinct 13' (2005). He went on make the epic crime biopic remake 'Mesrine' (2008) and the enjoyable comedy remake 'One Wild Moment' (2017). Here he maintains the taut stylistics of revenge crime cinema that Luc Besson taught to Pierre Morel.
Starlight (in your eyes ...)
'You'll Never Truly Vanish' ~ Starlight
I'd rank the 'Blood Father' as one of the 10 best American crime films of the last decade and it was made for a handy $15,000,000. Shame it flopped at the box-office but hopefully it can pick up some steam on dvd. It's great to have Mad Mel back in action and it smells like redemption time.
