Remember Mel Gibson? He’s back, as tough and bloody-minded as ever – and he has an axe to grind.
Our Mel has spent a few years in the Hollywood wilderness after some very public indiscretions, but he’s been given a chance to redeem himself and he’s seized it .
Blood Father could have been written with Gibson in mind. Hell, you want a tough guy with integrity who will kill without compunction, who ya gonna call?
[Congratulations to Sydney Macleay journalism student Patrick Staveley who correctly named the USA as Mel Gibson’s country of birth, and scooped the prize pack of action movie DVDs and a double pass to Blood Father.]
As the paroled ex-con John Link he’s tough, all right, even though the movie opens with him doing his damnedest to stick to the straight and narrow as a tattoo artist. Not that he’s gone soft, mind. He’s just had a gutful of being cooped up in gaols full of scumbags. And we all know how well Mel’s standard anti-hero character gets on with them.
Best intentions mean little, however, when trouble comes knocking on your door, which it does in the form of Link’s long-lost daughter Lydia, played by Erin Moriarty. Lydia’s not the problem; that’s the gang of Mexican desperados who are chasing her because they blame her for the death of their boss (and her squeeze), the nastiest gang warlord on either side of the border. Be warned: there are a lot of bad prison tattoos in this movie.
Naturally, mayhem ensues. Naturally, a lot of nasty people get killed in ever more inventive ways as Mel “reaches out to them” in his usual uncompromising manner. Reviews from the States were good, ranging from “pretty much gives you all that you could want from pulp fiction” (the New York Times) to “a small gem: a good old-fashioned chase picture” (the Los Angeles Times) and “entertaining as hell” (Las Vegas Weekly).
Blood Father was directed by Frenchman Jean-Francois Richet, a man with a great track record on the gangland front, having given us the two brilliant Mesrine movies. If you like the damaged-hero-gets-his-hands-very-dirty genre you should love Blood Father. Diego Luna, William H. Macey and Elisabeth Röhm also star.
And of course, there’s the bonus of nine anti-hero classics being given away by Icon Film Distribution: The Transporter Refuelled, Transporter 3, Safe, Machete Kills, Only God Forgives, Sin City – A Dame to Kill For, Edge of Darkness, Harry Brown and Get the Gringo are all up for grabs. Just stock up on popcorn and liquid refreshments and you’ll be set for the rest of the September break.
To enter the lucky draw just tell us what country Aussie Mel was born in. Email your answer in the subject line of an email to tkleu@macleay.edu.au before midnight on September 2. The winner will be notified on Saturday. The double pass is valid for showings of Blood Father at movies around Australia.
Blood Father opens on Thursday, September 1. – The Newsroom Team
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