Look, guys, I get it. Liam Neeson was really, really badass in Taken. There's no getting around it. The man who once was Darkman totally reinvented himself with the Luc Besson-backed action spectacle, and he kicked all sorts of ass, including the box office's derrière. So when I see something like Blood Father, in which Mel Gibson sports an excellent beard and fights off a small army of drug dealers-traffickers to save his estranged daughter (Jessica Jones' Erin Moriarty), it's not exactly surprising. It's not particularly exciting either.
In the latest trailer for the get-your-hands-off-my-daughter thriller, which you can take a look at below, along with the pretty classy poster for the film, you can clearly see Gibson getting his action-star bravura back after the less-than-appealing Get the Gringo. What you don't see is anything particularly original, or even the hint that something unique might be hiding underneath all the blood, guns, and beard hair. In fact, this is one of those trailer where you can essentially glean the film's entire narrative from the footage given. For instance, things look pretty grim for William H. Macy's character and I can't be the only one who is borderline positive that Diego Luna's boyfriend character isn't really dead, right?
Action movies aren't necessarily the best genre for personal filmmaking, but it's been done before on several occasions, most notably in the films of B-movie icon Sam Fuller or, for that matter, John Frankenheimer. Then again, for the record, I was entertained by director Jean-Francois Richet's remake of Assault on Precinct 13, as well as his international crime-world epic, Mesrine, though neither resonated much beyond when the credits began rolling. So, in that sense, there is hope that Blood Father could be enjoyable trash, the kind of movie you have on in the background while you nurse a hangover. There's no sign that it will be anything more, and plenty of signs that it could be much less.
Here's the latest trailer for Blood Father:
Here's the official synopsis for Blood Father:
BLOOD FATHER stars Mel Gibson as John Link, an ex-convict who fights to protect his estranged daughter from the drug cartel that is hunting her down. In this thrilling action film, John must use his connections from his past life and his skills as an ex-criminal to keep him and his daughter alive.
And finally, here's the poster for the movie:
