REVIEW: Blood Father

August 31, 2016

In Review, Theatrical, This Week by Cara Nash2 Comments

"...a predictable, empty film..."
Matthew Lowe
Year: 2016
Rating: MA
Director: Jean-François Richet
Cast:

Mel Gibson, Erin Moriarty, William H. Macy

Distributor: Icon
Released: September 1
Running Time: 88 minutes
Worth: $10.00

FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth

…a predictable, empty film…

The best reference point for Blood Father is The Simpsons episode where Homer helps Mel Gibson re-edit his remake of Mr. Smith Goes To Washington after a bad test screening. The formerly staid drama quickly becomes a parodic action film, with Gibson’s Mr. Smith breaking necks in congress and impaling a judge over the American flag. Like Homer Simpson’s conception of Mel, Blood Father heightens all the excesses that we associate with the actor, who spends ninety minutes shooting, stabbing, and swearing a blue streak while he rides a hog and kills Mexicans. Virtually a satire, what the film lacks is humour, which means that it is closer to self-parody instead.

Gibson plays a recovering alcoholic, ex-con named John Link. He lives out in the desert with his AA sponsor, William H. Macy, and some other Aryan hangers-on. Into his life comes his estranged daughter, Lydia (Erin Moriarty), on the lam after shooting her cartel criminal boyfriend (Diego Luna) in the neck during a botched home raid.  The cartel comes after Lydia, tracking her down, smashing up Link’s trailer, and inveigling him in a madcap road trip with his daughter to either escape from, or kill, their pursuers.

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It isn’t hard to understand why Gibson chose a film like this: it’s squarely in his comfort zone, and rightly, the role suits him as an actor. Unfortunately, his presence cannot carry what is in reality a predictable, empty film that would have gone straight to DVD if it starred Eric Roberts or Chuck Norris. The characters are too two-dimensional to ever care, and there is no value beyond the surface of events to make it more than mildly diverting. Like a bowl of ice cream, it’s perfectly enjoyable while you’re eating it, but afterwards you realise that the empty calories were a waste of time.

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Comments

  1. It’s a great film. Luke Mad Max is back. Mel and the cast are so good, leke real life would be. The ending is so sad but great. People still hate Mel when he does’t. Ironic huh? Haters of all kinds are pathetic.

  2. You suck. The 1 hour and 28 minutes of the film will likely have more a respectable impact on human history than the first 31 years of your life. Did I mention you suck? Well, you do, but as a humane matter I feel obligated to inform you that if you suck out the contents of used condoms, you can survive in the wilderness for an extra two weeks.

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