Blood Father (2016)
Directed by Jean-François Richet
An ex-con reconnects with his estranged teenage daughter while fighting to keep her alive after she becomes a target of violent drug dealers.
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What critics compared Blood Father to
The premise is as satisfying as that of Liam Neeson’s Taken franchise, but with Link’s campaign through the trailer-park badlands of California’s Coachella Valley suggesting an Old West version of Hollywood.
The film, written by Peter Craig (the story comes from his 2006 novel) and Andrea Berloff (World Trade Center, Straight Outta Compton), at times feels like just another variant on the particular action genre that was re-established by Taken in 2008 — we have yet another father forced to rely on his particular set of skills to save his daughter from a nightmare scenario.
The relationship between John and Lydia is at the heart of the film, but there's little of the queasy cuteness and sentimentality of a Luc Besson production such as Taken.
French-produced films about American daddies wanting to protect their female offspring have basically become an unofficial subgenre since the success of the first Taken film, so it’s easy to see why French director Jean-Francois Richet (Mesrine, the decent but not exceptional Assault on Precinct 13 remake) signed up to direct Blood Father.
This propulsive crime picture appropriates the daddy-vengeance model of Taken and replaces the joyless, clinical efficiency with Mel Gibson tearing up the screen in full beardy maniac mode.
Mel Gibson reclaims his action hero mojo in Mesrine director Jean-François Richet's slick pulp thriller, even if it does feel like a trashier carbon copy of Liam Neeson's Taken.
Think "Mad" Mel Gibson's 2016 comeback vehicle Blood Father, amped up to the max, with a crossbow-toting Cage, fuelled by fury (and snorting drugs off a shard of broken glass), ignoring "odds that aren't that good".
Mel Gibson’s Blood Father handled a similar father-daughter plot better, but this penchant for on-screen violence is part of contemporary culture’s ugliness.