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Blood Father

5/10

Stars: Mel Gibson, Erin Moriarty, Diego Luna, William H Macy, Michael Parks, Miguel Sandoval, Dale Dickey, Ryan Dorsey, Brandi Cochran

Director: Jean-François Richet

Mel Gibson returns in a violent drugs-and-gangsters film that casts him as Link, a two-time loser and alcoholic, still searching for the daughter (Moriarty), now 17, who has been missing for the past three years.

Unfortunately, the girl, Lydia, has fallen in with Jonah (Luna), leader of of a South American narcotics gang peddling their padrone's wares in the USA. Accompanying the gang on a gun-brandishing mission to teach a thief a lesson, Lydia accidentally shoots Jonah and, panic-stricken, flees the scene, soon contacting the father she hasn't seen in years, long before she ran away from her mother's custody.

Soon Link is caught up in her flight from gangsters bent on revenge.

The action's good, but performances seem to be on auto-pilot, with Moriarty also a shade too sophisticated to be the daughter of a redneck ex-con like Link. But it's a serviceable blue-collar thriller that should do well enough on DVD.

David Quinlan

USA 2015. UK Distributor: Warner Brothers. Colour by FotoKem.
85 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 1, Swearing 3.

Review date: 14 Feb 2017

DVD review