Blood Out

Not set in Mexico and only vaguely based on blooding out, this horrendously produced straight-to-DVD film, rather than sticking to violence, gangland drug abuse and prostitution, instead ties itself in knots trying to establish a credible plot-line.

Sheriff Savion (Luke Goss, Death Race 2) works alongside Detective Hardwick (50 Cent) on the police force until his brother is ‘blooded out’ by Zed (Vinnie Jones). After being pounded on by 50 Cent for no apparent reason Savion realises he must forgo the law to discover the truth of the murder. Casting asunder his badge, taking a Sharpie to his arms for some fantastically bad gang tats, Savion infiltrates the gang that killed his little bro, kicks a lot of ass and hastily rises up the ranks. Is he in too deep or is it blood out time for Sheriff Savion?

With such a glittering cast, high expectations were held for this film but 50 Cent stars for all of ten seconds, and little is seen of Vinnie Jones after the opening scenes. However, a saving grace appears in the form of Val Kilmer as a mystical gang Overlord reciting mantras about “Mars, God of War, son of Juno” that puts Blood Out back in the leagues of the amusingly terrible. Kilmer reportedly barked and howled like a dog when he fluffed a line. This certainly sets the tone of the production.

Washed-out colour and poor quality sound alongside an over egged story-line that soon confused who’s allied with who and lost track of the avenging-the-brother plot soon made for a film that had to be loosely followed and enjoyed for a spattering of action genius.

One such moment was Savion’s gladiatorial “blood in” battle with 273 pounds of former WWE wrestler Bobby Lashley a.k.a. ‘The Pressure Cooker’. Charged with homoerotic energy and full mercenary attire, this fight-to-the-death provides one of the best scenes in the film. But it gets better.

Clinging to the top of the getaway car that has kidnapped his heavily pregnant would-be sister-in-law, Savion manages, whilst falling from its roof, to grip hold of and flip the car 360 degrees, thus vanquishing the kidnapper but managing not to abort his future niece/nephew. It is a stunning cinematic moment, which has to be rewound multiple times to truly appreciate its beauty.

Having frittered the budget on gats, tats and hoes, Blood Out ends hastily to say the least. After the epic car-chase and no other dialogue, the film ends with the line “No more gangs and no more drugs, okay?”. Then the shot unceremoniously cuts to end credits.

Blood Out is a thing of cinematic beauty that is let down only by its befuddled script, shoddy production, average acting and amateur special-effects.

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