Blood Ties

Independent films, being already at the disadvantage of lacking a studio subsidized budget and pool of resources, are dealt a harsher blow by the criticism given by an audience when the finished piece is compared against the slick, polished Hollywood product. But why do we want it slick and polished? Do we really want the story all neat-n-tidy, pre-digested for us? Don't we prefer those creative and visually stunning pieces that engage us in a new paradigm?

Enter: Blood Ties by William Kely McClung, an independent feature film that requires the viewer's attention and imaginative involvement but pays it back many times over with depth of character, unanticipated FX, and bone-jarring action.

While rattling the audience along at desperate, heart-punishing pace, Blood Ties requires the audience to think, without making them hate doing it. This isn't tweed-and-pipe professor analytical thinking, but the looking over your shoulder for the hidden guns in the shadows, the click on your phone line really being the snapping of pieces fitting together kind of thinking. It is an international chess match with tragic human casualties and spectacular martial arts action sequences.

An action film at heart, Blood Ties delivers fight scenes laden with an astonishing mixture of martial art, wrestling, and street fighting styles. But the real genius of the film is the director's balance of truly exquisite filming in the Virginia mountains, National Mall in D.C., and the jungles of Cambodia and Thailand with these explosions of brutality. The nuances and innuendos in the story carry enough to fill a trilogy, but never come across as overwhelming, thanks to the truly top-notch editing and brilliance of visual storytelling.

With a tag line: "Fight for your country. Fight for your family. Fight for your life.", one could expect the film to be lacking of sensitivities and character development. A word of advice: Don't. Blood Ties brings it. Jim's defiance and indomitable spirit while getting the crap beat out of him speak to a strength far deeper than that of any other character. He is no one's victim. Jack's intensity and resolve are given penetration and weight when cut against his humor and softness while discussing disturbing culinary choices with Sarin. A warrior with a human side; who knew? And the sadistic and awkwardly comical Markus/Erik combination is both frightening and leveling, showing the animal in the man.

While the film does have some slight sound issues, the strength of the acting (even in the nonverbal) and the eclectic, evocative score give the film a quiet artistry and subtle power. The desperation and palpable urgency of the film are played out across 90+ minutes of conspiracy, hidden strands of interconnectedness, and heavy consequences. Watching it once is not enough.

Despite all the relatively "bad" movies that I watch, it's not often that I need to actively force myself to sit through a film's entirety because I'm not really enjoying myself. However, such was the case with BLOOD TIES, an ambitious but ultimately poor movie starring former ninja and stuntman Kely McClung. If I missed any fleeting redeeming factor this disappointing piece of work had to offer, it was because its remaining 90 minutes had already lulled me into a state of lethargy and inattentiveness.

The story: When his brother is kidnapped while working for a foreign embassy, ex-black ops operative Jack Davis (McClung) must travel across the world and utilize all his deadly talents to rescue him.

The career of Kely McClung is an interesting study. Slated to be the next Jean-Claude Van Damme by starring in a picture that Van Damme dropped out of, McClung instead found himself supporting B-movie stars via stuntwork and bit parts for years afterward. He eventually turned to producing and directing, the freshman effort of which was this film. Sadly, as skilled as he is in martial arts, Kely is as unprepared to direct. I realize that with an obviously limited budget, it's difficult to make a film look professional, but as both the director and editor, McClung resorts to sloppy, amateur techniques that I can remember utilizing myself during video production class in high school. The editing is erratic, with quick-cuts all around and weird add-ins like on screen text appearing out of the blue. The camera-work is unskilled, with the camera constantly flying around and rarely settling for a stationary picture; other times, frustratingly tight close-ups are utilized. These features are constant throughout the movie; to the point that just keeping up with what's happening on the screen in a chore. Major minus, movie.

I'd talk about the action scenes, but they're effectively obscured by the aforementioned amateurisms to the point that I'd have to resort to guesswork. Kely does plenty of karate but good luck if you can follow the choreography through the nonstop cutting and zooming of the camera. He has five fights, two of which are one-on-one encounters against Thai film veteran Erik Markus Schuetz: one of these is pretty disappointing, but the other positively sets the low point for film fighting. You literally don't see 90% of the action in that one, which is composed almost solely of sound effects. Jeez, Kely! - and I thought KARATE ROCK was bad on this account!

It's pretty impressive that the film was shot through six cities in three different countries, but you know what? - I'll bet it would've been more watchable if Kely had used the money spent on the airfare to bolster his production values. I must admit, I did not pay enough attention to the intricate story to ever really know what was going on, but I blame it on the aforementioned faults: if I've had a bellyful of sour editing and stringy fight scenes within the first half-hour, no amount of plot points are going to be able to sweeten the pot enough to heighten my rating. I'm sorry, Mr. McClung: you seem like a really cool guy, but your first film here really, really stinks. I'll keep my eyes open for your other movies nevertheless, for they can only improve from BLOOD TIES.