First there was Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Then there was Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Now we have the famous pairing of Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson (lovingly referred to as Fity by many) and Val Kilmer (known as Iceman in my household). Who would have thought after one straight to video film in GUN audiences would be so fortunate to see a second straight to video film with the duo in BLOOD OUT? We are truly lucky. Are you picking up on my sarcasm? I hope so, because I’m laying it on pretty thick.
When a police officer’s gang involved brother is brutally murdered by his own crew for finally wanting out, Sherriff Michael Spencer (Luke Goss) goes rogue. The big city detectives led by Curtis Jackson don’t investigate because it’s gang on gang violence so good riddance. However, they randomly beat up Sherriff Spencer for trying to step into their investigation. I can not understand this action for the life of me. So the small town cop then believes he will probably be losing his job. Wait, what? Another officer from a different precinct beats him up and he believes HE will lose HIS job? Rather than pursue this lawfully, he goes AWOL from the force, tattoos his entire body similar to the gang his brother was involved in, walks into a rival gangs territory and beats the living daylights out of them. Luckily the gang he’s trying to infiltrate just happens to be watching and accept him with open arms. His toughness quickly raises him in the position of general to the top guy. In a wildly absurd premise, the action comes to a climax with the boss of a rival gang (Val Kilmer) and the boss of Michael’s gang agreeing to have their best soldiers fight and the winner will take over North and South America territory. Michael is chosen to represent and figures this is as a good of time as any to seek revenge for his brother’s death.
As you can see the screenplay is a little rough. Basically, stretching any believability in story and characters in order to have one guy beat people up. The one shining light to come out of this mess is actor Luke Goss. He plays the lead like a veteran action star who understands how to command the screen while believably kicking everyone’s tail. The rest of the acting did not fair so well. Reciting nonsensical lines as if he was doped up on cough medicine, Val Kilmer is specifically downright painful to watch in his very small and pointless role.
The plot makes no sense. Multiple characters come in and out of the picture without any relevance and continue to responds foolishly without reason or consequence. Val Kilmer, Curtis Jackson and Vinnie Jones are all big enough names that have extremely odd roles that are forced and limited in significance to the rest of the picture. The choppy editing had no rhyme or reason other than director Jason Hewitt thought it might look cool. Every aspect felt like regurgitation from other bad films. As if the director’s only influence was from a singular film class titled ‘Cliché Action And Dialogue In Film.’ Every fight or action sequence was shot in slow motion that I can only guess was in order to hide the poor choreography and action talent of the actors. And I don’t have enough time to explain the female love interest with the unbelievably ridiculous backstory.
Obviously I always have low expectations before viewing a straight to video film, but my expectations were more than rightfully accurate by this pointless and insulting attempt at an action movie. BLOOD OUT is severely bad and not all just because of silly scenes like a car flipping 27 times and the pregnant girl inside walking out unscathed but mostly because my personal favorite dynamic duo since Rocky and Bullwinkle, Iceman and Fity, never actually share the screen together.
Video: (1080p High Definition 1.78:1) Some exceptionally grainy shots in this smorgasbord of jumpy editing.
Audio: (5.1 DTS-HD MA) This rap/rock soundtrack driven film is showcased nicely in surround sound.
Behind the Scenes with Cast and Crew Interviews (16:56): Typical featurette with the cast and crew complimenting one another on how great everyone is and how wonderful it was to work on the film.
