Der Rubin des Blutes

My review was written in April 1989 after watching the movie on Forum video cassette.

Despite the exotic locale in India, "Bloodstone" is a pedestrian, uninvolving adventure pic that's understandably been released direct-to-video in the U. S. Pic was filmed prior to director Dwight Little's successful "Halloween 4". Stilted screenplay by Curt Allen and producer Nico Mastorakis concerns a huge, cursed ruby that's stolen by Jack Kehler for baddie Christopher Neame.

Brett Stimely is an ex-cop on his honeymoon with Anna Nicholas, a textile heiress, who becomes involved inthe chasing around action when Kehler secrets the stolen gem in Anna's tennis bag. Protagonists and their problems are dwarfed by scenic, remote locations including an impressive climax on a footbridge across roaring rapids.

Hero Stimely is stymied by dubbing of his dialog while co-star Nicholas looks nice but makes little impression in a stock role. Ditto transparent bad guy Neame, while the decision to cast Charlie Brill as the stumbling Indian police inspector is completely out-of-date and destroys credibility.

Tech credits are okay.

"Bloodstone" may be unknown to North American film buffs, but it was released with some fanfare in India, because the main character's sidekick is played by Rajnikanth, a South Indian mega star. Compared to the aplomb with which he plays his Tamil film roles, Rajnikanth is rather subdued as an autorickshaw driver in "Bloodstone". His fans will be disappointed as he takes a backseat to the lead character.

To non-Indian watchers, "Bloodstone" will come across as a run-of-the-mill adventure movie, albeit set in an exotic location. The title refers to a gem once owned by a Maharaja who put a curse on its future owners.

(Reviewed by Sundar Narayan)

The reason for watching this movie is, as you all know, this is the English movie starring Rajinikanth. It deals with a stolen rare gem stone called Bloodstone. It is very funny (as usual) to see how the Americans see India. Comparatively, this is far clean. The huge failure of this film discouraged more Indo-American collaboration. Otherwise, we should have more films, just like other (East) Asian-American mix.

The movie is quite interesting. Superstar Rajinikanth had acted without any hesitation although he is second hero.

This movie was shot in South India such as Bangalore, Madras, etc which will new treat to westerners.

Rajinikanth keep it up.

Oh, yes. We all know about Hollywood (Hey, does any movie come from Hollywood anymore?), right? Well, are you familiar with "Bollywood," which is like Hollywood, but in India? Many people are familiar with Bollywood, which brings me here today to talk about "Bloodstone."

It's an exciting, ride-of-your-life horror-action-adventure-thriller movie that just completely blows all those other Indian (or in this case, Eastern) movies out of the park into the dust. Just hearing about this movie makes me want to watch Indian films more often!

"Bloodstone" is one foreign film that must not be missed, especially if you are an Indian movie buff. I liked this movie from start...to finish!