Blood of Redemption

To start I began my love affair with Dolph Lundgren when I was about 12 and was heartbroken when he ceased making movies, or so I thought. It seems he'd been stuck in the straight to DVD funk and needed a good script or, in the case of his comeback, an old friend.

When the Expendable came out and I went to see it it was a little after my 40th birthday and I was astounded when I saw a familiar yet somewhat lost name in the beginning credits. "Dolph Lundgren" Oh joy! Needless to say, I had to own it once it hit DVD status and it reawakened my love for this brilliant man.

I began looking for his movies and to my surprise, I was met with titles I'd never seen before and future works in progress.

Since then I've seen almost all of his movies with exception of a few and that's only because they have yet to be released. So now, lets get started with this movie review shall we.

We are told that "It begins with a mans death." and in fact it begins with a family watched over by a man named Axel, (Lundgren)a long time body guard and friend of a mob boss. When his charge is eventually killed he takes it upon himself to find out two things. Why? and Who? With the help of a beautiful young woman named Laryen and an FBI agent he begins to put the pieces of a very troubling puzzle together. But the picture he ends up with is more disappointing then he anticipates.

In the end Axel must follow his own advise to stay alive long enough to exact vengeance on the one who murdered his friend.

*I enjoyed it so much that I bought it*

Once again Serafini, Lundgren and Capaldi hook up to make a Movie. And they fare somewhat better this time around.

Plot: small time Corleones need to step down to avoid jail time. They cannot agree on how among themselves, but some are prepared to kill to get their way...

Rush, which I reviewed a couple of Days ago, was far too complicated for its own good due to too layered characters although 3,1 is too low a rating. On this Point Blood of Redemption succeeds much better with not so complicated characters.

On the other hand, the plot twists and secrecy gets the better off of this one. In this Movie the writers try too much to create suspense whereas in Rush they try too much to create interesting characters. Perhaps the next Movie will get these things right. I like Movies that have different groups of people and/or individuals with different goals that at the end Clash together because they usually tend to be entertaining. but here it does not quite convince which may be due to lacking script, budget and acting performances.

However, the current rating is 4,1 which I Think is unfair. The acting is good enough and Lundgren, Zane, Jones and Capaldi do their job (at their capacity anyway) and the action sequences are decent enough, at least to the level where they do not bother you. the only thing that bothered me is that some of the bullet holes/blood splatters looked like CGI work to me, which is something I do not appreciate (CGI or not, they still look bad).

I give it 5 out of 10 because it is entertaining enough. The quality of the Movie is like Caught in the Crossfire, Nico, Marked for Death and Under Siege 2 for instance.

(2013) Blood of Redemption ACTION THRILLER/ MYSTERY

Co-written and directed by Giorgio Serafini and Shawn Sourgose. It opens with Axel (Dolph Lundgren) narrating the terms of events he turns around and gets shot during a shootout in a warehouse before the movie goes back two weeks earlier. As it opens with Axel and a young lady both walking into his apartment. She sits down and Axel begins to showcase viewers and her his chart of who's who. We find out Axel's profession as a bodyguard and chauffeur for a particular crime syndicate family that consists of a father, Sergio Giraldi (Robert Miano) and his two sons; younger son, with aspirations to work for the FBI, Kurt Giraldi (Gianni Capaldi) and his older, Quinn Giraldi (Billy Zane) expected to take over the family business with his living girlfriend, Loryn. (Jelly Howie). At the same time, Sergio wants to retire the family business of illegal gambling, identity theft and producing counterfeit money to pass it along to his partner business partner, Hayden (Robert Davi). And as a result of his retirement, Hayden wants to call and involve his nephew/ son Campbell (Vinnie Jones) into the racket.

What drew me into seeing 'Blood of Redemption' in the first place? The reasonably likeable cast, a potentially intriguing story and that it was part of my low budget completest quest and popped up in my recommended for you section. Was also a bit apprehensive, with a less than favourable rating and generally reviews that were lukewarm at best.

'Blood of Redemption', when checking it out, certainly could have been much worse. There are definitely worse films about, of the genre and overall. Is it a good film let alone a great one? Not even close. Did it use its potential? No. Is it that bad? Not quite. Does it has redeeming qualities? Yes, but not many. To me, while having learnt not to trust ratings and not worry about going against the grain (though am in the minority here who respects critics opinions and tend to be on the same, or slightly above or below, page as them), the rating is about right and do have to agree with the criticisms here.

Dolph Lundgren, Billy Zane and Gianni Capaldi do serviceable jobs and are the reasons as to why 'Blood of Redemption' wasn't any worse, Lundgren being the best thing of the film.

Some of the story intrigued, namely the early stages, and the music while not the most memorable is at least listenable.

Unfortunately, Vinnie Jones and Robert Davi are poorly served and used. Jones overdoes it and shouts his way through a stock character and Davi is saddled with a clearly fake accent and spends the whole time looking uninterested. None of the characters are developed enough and are very difficult to get behind. 'Blood of Redemption' looks cheap, especially the badly organised and sometimes incomprehensible editing and catastrophically awful visual effects, so fake looking and doesn't blend well with the setting at all. The action is both dull and chaotic, there is nothing exciting and it's choreographed with no enthusiasm or finesse.

The script is too talky and has no tautness, the pace is flabby and the story gets far too complicated with the twists not being that much of a surprise. The direction seemed indicative of lack of experience or ease.

Overall, not horrendous but severely lacking in many areas. 3/10 Bethany Cox

This is a decent genre movie working through the codex, coupled with some veteran actors who performed with a various level of enthusiasm and talent. A nod to classical kung-fu movies, John Wu, Russian Mob, Italian Mob, Irish Mob, crooked senator, and a few more, for a bit of a hodge-podge that is best enjoyed while doing something on a side, like watering a lawn or solving a sudoku. With more gratuitous nudity, I would even skip my two visits to the fridge and a phone call. Directing and editing were loud and intrusive, like a drunk best man at the wedding, humor was cheesy and the story convoluted, so, all in all, and enjoyable experience, particularly after a third beer.