In the Blood (DVD) – Movie Review
Sometimes a DVD cover gives you a very clear picture of what to expect. When you combine statements like “a fearsome force of nature” with “she will stop at nothing” and cast an ex-MMA superstar, you get a pretty good idea what you are up for. You do wonder though, will the movie play with the expectations of an action movie, or will it follow the conventions?
In the Blood follows Ava (Gina Carano) and Derek (Cam Gigandet), a couple enjoying their honeymoon on an exotic Caribbean island. The two are enjoying the beautiful beaches and the wild nature of the holiday paradise. However, when they get invited to the hottest club of the island, a fight ensues when a big time gangster named Big Biz (Danny Trejo) attempts to seduce Ava. The twist is that Derek gets beaten up and Ava wrecks the gangster’s cronies.
Having recovered from the fight, the two newly-weds decide to go cable sliding in the jungle. Tragedy strikes when Derek’s rope breaks and he falls from the high altitude. Fortunately, an ambulance is quickly summoned to take him to the best hospital of the island. Ava, not allowed inside the ambulance due to insurance trouble, follows the ambulance on motorbike, but loses it in the busy traffic of the big town. Once arrived at the hospital, there appears no trace of her husband.
Local police suspect Ava of killing her husband to collect his money, but Ava soon figures out that something more sinister is behind the disappearance of her man and uses her violent past to get to the bottom of the mystery.
In the Blood is directed by John Stockwell, who you might know from his other works Blue Crush and Into the Blue. He does an alright job directing this movie. He stays away from too much shaky cam actions, allowing you to actually see the fights scenes, which is always a good thing for an action movie. What makes the action even more convincing is the fact that Gina Carano is an ex-MMA fighter, who was once ranked as the number three of the world. It is pretty clear that she knows how to beat somebody down. This is probably the biggest asset of the movie. Sadly, that’s about as far as her talents reach. The moment Carano has to act more then just delivering a one liner, it becomes apparent that she isn’t the world’s greatest actress.
Gigandet is playing the role of damsel in distress. This means he doesn’t really do a lot in the movie, expect be in need of rescue. It’s refreshing to see that the standard gender roles are switched, but like all the people that must be rescued, there isn’t much meat to the role. The few things he does aren’t bad however.
The bad guys then. Danny Trejo has one role he can play, and undoubtedly he’s one of the best people to pick if you are in need for a silent bad-ass. The only downside is that they can’t make Trejo’s character 100% bad nowadays, since he’s too well liked by the audience. This sometimes gets in the way of giving him a believable role.
Amaury Nolasco, who you might remember from Prison Break, puts down the best performance. He’s selling the villain who can act sugar sweet convincingly and succeeds in creating a sympathetic character, who can turn psycho at any time. Lastly we have Luis Guzmán, who, continuing the lazy type casting, plays a questionable cop. Is the sleazy Chief Ramón Garza really helping Ava, or is he out to make some quick cash out of the whole ordeal?
You can kind of see the attempted quality throughout the movie, but the below par acting combined with some lazy camera work doesn’t allow this movie to ever reach it. The pacing is very skewed, which makes it seems like the director had no idea if he wanted to go all-in on the action, or if he should attempt to actually create a story. In the end, he did neither, distancing audiences who came for some fast hitting action, and those who came to see a good old revenge story.
Conclusion
An unoriginal revenge story, with actors who aren’t really putting their all in the movie. The fight scenes are good, as you’d expect from a genuine MMA fighters, but the story itself is a rehash of a rehash. It’s a shame, because there’s a lot of talent in this movie that doesn’t come out.
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