Trailer Tuesday: In the Blood

-

American couple vacations in a foreign land. Wife vanishes unexpectedly. Thwarted by unhelpful officials, husband must solve the mystery of her disappearance, which normally involves threatening, beatings and underworld dealings...

Yeah, we've seen this story unfold a dozen times on the big screen, typically in B-grade action thrillers. We see it again in In the Blood, except with a twist. A gender twist. This time it's the husband who goes missing and the wife who must find him. Good thing then she's played then by MMA star-turned-actress Gina Carano.


In In the Blood, newlyweds Ava and Derek (Cam Gigandet) are vacationing in the Caribbean. When Derek suffers a zipline accident and never arrives at the hospital, Ava suspects the involvement of a local crime lord (Danny Trejo) after a violent run-in at a nightclub the prior evening. She sets out for revenge, and increasingly finds this island paradise is anything but.

There are a lot of recognisable faces in the cast of this one, including Luis Guzman, Treat Williams and Stephen Lang. For the record, the director of Crazy/Beautiful, Blue Crush and Into the Blue is at the helm.

So yeah, In the Blood is definitely a "second string" release. However, if we're honest the only reason to watch this R-rated film - which has been described as competent but derivative - is really to see Carano convincingly kicking ass. Of her film work I've only watched Haywire to date, and I had mixed feelings then, but despite her limitations as an actress, she does know how to deliver gratifying brutality.


With its B-grade roots, In the Blood is not receiving a big screen release. It's apparently available via iTunes right now though (since 4 April), with a DVD and Blu-ray release scheduled for on 3 June in North America. South Africans may or may not get to see In the Blood at cinemas, although if it does happen, I suspect it will be months from now.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is the rebooted Lara Croft gay? Evidence for and against...

-
Image
As some of you know, I’ve been fangirling hard over the new Tomb Raider , the first entry in the video game series since 2008, and ostensibly a reboot for the entire franchise . Taking the form of an origin story, Tomb Raider 2013 depicts the events that transformed a beautiful, if bookish, archaeology graduate into a pistol-packing adventurer with a devil-may-care attitude. We meet Lara Croft as a pretty, fairly ordinary 21 year old, brooding over her work notes, listening to her mp3 player and very much confined to the shadow of her male mentors. By the end of the game, however, she’s taken charge – she’s had to! – and, battered, bruised and bloody, she’s both a survivor and hero, right down to rescuing the princess and carrying her away in her arms. Yeah, this is probably the best point to mention that there will be some Tomb Raider 2013 spoilers in this post, so read ahead with caution. Anyway, I loved the game. Technically it’s near faultless, it looks beautiful, the ov
Read more

Weekend report-back: beach, board games and books

-
Image
So I'm back in the office after a 4 day weekend. And I'm trying not to remind myself that it's almost 3 months until the next public holiday. Bah! Anyway, pop culture didn't play too massive a part in my mini-break. There was braai -ing (expected on National Braai Day), the baking of pretzels in celebration of Oktoberfest ( even if we weren't in Munich this year ), working on the next Girlz 'N' Games comic , and a family lunch to celebrate my mother and cousin's birthdays. A hefty chunk of the weekend however was spent at one of my favourite holiday destinations: the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast. We were celebrating a friend's birthday at his family's holiday flat in Southbroom. So there was much chilling and eating and games playing, as well as kite flying, dolphin spotting and swallowing of saltwater as I flailed around in the choppy, chilly surf. We even managed to find Emo Shell! Anyway, film viewing was neglected this weekend, with the excepti
Read more

Movies today, SA!

-
Image
Despite the fact that 5 new films open in South Africa today, not a single one is worthy of an extended Pick of the Week description. If you haven't seen it yet (like me), go and watch Disney-Pixar's Up instead. If you can't get past a deeply ingrained "grown-up" prejudice against animated films, what about seeking out the Johnny Depp-Christian Bale gangster movie Public Enemies ? Hell, you could even go and watch District 9 again. Just stay away from the mediocrity released this weekend. Yeesh. I Hate Valentine's Day - Nia Vardalos reteams with her My Big Fat Greek Wedding love interest John Corbett for this romantic comedy in which a carefree florist lives by a "5 dates only" rule so a relationship never develops and she never gets hurt. A charming restaurateur, however, forces her to re-evaluate her unusual approach to dating. 17% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes . Karate Kallie - A South African comedy about Kallie, a fat teenager, who is mercilessly
Read more