Some movies you just have to look at in a different way than they are intended to get any sort of enjoyment out of them. That is especially true with BLOOD OF REDEMPTION. It is one of those low budget action flicks that seemingly get churned out every day. Stephen Seagal makes a decent living now starring in these. So does Dolph Lundgren who is in this movie. The degree of silliness is off the charts. This is nowhere near a good film, but I did get some chuckles out of the sheer ineptitude of it all.
BLOOD OF REDEMPTION starts with your standard shootout. Bullets are flying everywhere and carnage is a foot. I started to cringe when I heard the voiceover from Lundgren. Most of the times, voiceovers are lazy tools used by filmmakers to explain everything that’s on the screen. It is this spoon feeding that is so prevalent in Hollywood. They think that people are too dumb to figure things out. Sure there are some people out there that may need this sort of device, but most can get by without it.
Lundgren plays Axel, a bodyguard to a crime family. The story jumps around in time a bit. He is the narrator, so it is his story to tell. He works for the Forte family. They deal mostly in gambling and identity theft. There was a new venture into counterfeiting. Sergio (Robert Miano) is the head of the family and he’s getting out while he can. Their operation had been protected by Senator Roswald (Jim Storm). He informed Sergio that the protection may be coming to an end. Sergio tells his two sons Quinn (Billy Zane in all his baldness) and younger son Kurt (Gianni Capaldi) of his decision to leave the business. Sergio also has a business partner named Hayden (Robert Davi).
Before they get out though, one last job was going to be done. Hayden gets his nephew, Campbell (Vinnie Jones), from England to help with this and get him away from his troubles abroad. Quinn and Campbell are going to do a counterfeiting gig and make enough money to retire once and for all. Something goes terribly wrong however as Quinn gets nabbed by the cops and Sergio gets murdered. Axel was on his way to try to save Quinn when all of this went down. So naturally Axel feels responsible for Sergio’s death and Quinn’s incarceration.
The movie jumps ahead three years. Axel is determined to figure out who was behind Sergio’s murder. Axel is helped in his cause by Quinn’s old girlfriend Loryn (Jelly Howie). Campbell and Hayden are now running things. Kurt is in the FBI and Quinn is getting out of prison. All of the players and schemes are well told by Axel’s ever present narration. I did like that the major characters were talked about first and then their names would be plastered on the screen.
The unintended humor derived from BLOOD OF REDEMPTION is plentiful. First Davi uses an accent for his character for reasons unknown. Throughout the film I tried to figure where this accent was from and why it was used. I never did crack that case. Kurt is as believable as an FBI agent as Screech from Saved by the Bell. I never bought into that. The action scenes are ludicrous to put it mildly. The fight scenes are not well staged and the gun shots are muffled. Directors Giorgio Serafini and Shawn Sourgose attempt to be stylish by constantly using slow motion for effect. It doesn’t work. The kicker is the ending. One character has to have everything go right for the plan to work. No one is that lucky. It boggles the mind to the many components involved. Your mind will explode just thinking about it.
BLOOD OF REDEMPTION is just a wasted opportunity. There are talented actors involved here. Billy Zane is always fun to watch and Dolph Lundgren is a credible action star. As I said I did take some joy in the unintentional humor. It just isn’t nearly enough to recommend.
BLOOD OF REDEMPTION BLU-RAY REVIEW
Video: Presented in 1080p High Definition 1:78:1.
Audio: This is a film that just didn’t have a full sound. The guns shots were muffled or a bit off with execution. Maybe a bigger budget would have helped here, but I doubt it.
Making of Featurette (11:49): Lundgren, Zane, Jones and Capadi discuss the film, their favorite scenes and gush about the director. Lundgren gets the most screen time here. Sound again is a problem.
Movie also comes in a regular DVD format.
Trailer
