Directed by Jean-François Richet
Country: France
I believe Mel Gibson was born to do action films. I don’t see him moving so comfortable in any other genre, and we have “Mad Max”, “Lethal Weapon”, and Braveheart” to confirm it.
This time around, under the direction of the French Jean-François Richet, he is John Link, an ex-con and tattooer whose unruly teen daughter, Lydia (Erin Moriarty), is reported missing.
All the time, she has been hanging out with her boyfriend, Jonah (Diego Luna), a spiteful criminal who is also the leader of a dangerous gang connected to the Mexican cartels.
During a violent house assault, Jonah tests Lydia’s love by urging her to shoot a woman, but she refuses. Instead, she accidentally shoots Jonah in the neck and escapes the place completely terrified.
With no one else to ask for money and protection, Lydia calls her father, who despite being on parole, is compelled to use the force in order to deal with the menacing thugs.
Besides realizing that his precious daughter was doing drugs and alcohol, John also learns from his pals in prison that Jonah was a relative of El Padrino, a heavyweight cartel leader.
While trying to keep Lydia away from the sight of the three psychos that follow her, John reconnects with Preacher (Michael Parks), a tricky Nazi ex-soldier from whom he expected some help, and also duels with an agile sicario sent to kill him.
Conceived and executed the old-fashioned way, “Blood Father” entertains without breaking new ground, straddling between the indie and the commercial.
It has the overwhelming action-packed scenes as its strongest aspect and the dramatic father/daughter relationship as its most vulnerable point.
Gibson’s fans will certainly enjoy it.
