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(2013) Blood of Redemption ACTION THRILLER/ MYSTERY

Co-written and directed by Giorgio Serafini and Shawn Sourgose. It opens with Axel (Dolph Lundgren) narrating the terms of events he turns around and gets shot during a shootout in a warehouse before the movie goes back two weeks earlier. As it opens with Axel and a young lady both walking into his apartment. She sits down and Axel begins to showcase viewers and her his chart of who's who. We find out Axel's profession as a bodyguard and chauffeur for a particular crime syndicate family that consists of a father, Sergio Giraldi (Robert Miano) and his two sons; younger son, with aspirations to work for the FBI, Kurt Giraldi (Gianni Capaldi) and his older, Quinn Giraldi (Billy Zane) expected to take over the family business with his living girlfriend, Loryn. (Jelly Howie). At the same time, Sergio wants to retire the family business of illegal gambling, identity theft and producing counterfeit money to pass it along to his partner business partner, Hayden (Robert Davi). And as a result of his retirement, Hayden wants to call and involve his nephew/ son Campbell (Vinnie Jones) into the racket.

What drew me into seeing 'Blood of Redemption' in the first place? The reasonably likeable cast, a potentially intriguing story and that it was part of my low budget completest quest and popped up in my recommended for you section. Was also a bit apprehensive, with a less than favourable rating and generally reviews that were lukewarm at best.

'Blood of Redemption', when checking it out, certainly could have been much worse. There are definitely worse films about, of the genre and overall. Is it a good film let alone a great one? Not even close. Did it use its potential? No. Is it that bad? Not quite. Does it has redeeming qualities? Yes, but not many. To me, while having learnt not to trust ratings and not worry about going against the grain (though am in the minority here who respects critics opinions and tend to be on the same, or slightly above or below, page as them), the rating is about right and do have to agree with the criticisms here.

Dolph Lundgren, Billy Zane and Gianni Capaldi do serviceable jobs and are the reasons as to why 'Blood of Redemption' wasn't any worse, Lundgren being the best thing of the film.

Some of the story intrigued, namely the early stages, and the music while not the most memorable is at least listenable.

Unfortunately, Vinnie Jones and Robert Davi are poorly served and used. Jones overdoes it and shouts his way through a stock character and Davi is saddled with a clearly fake accent and spends the whole time looking uninterested. None of the characters are developed enough and are very difficult to get behind. 'Blood of Redemption' looks cheap, especially the badly organised and sometimes incomprehensible editing and catastrophically awful visual effects, so fake looking and doesn't blend well with the setting at all. The action is both dull and chaotic, there is nothing exciting and it's choreographed with no enthusiasm or finesse.

The script is too talky and has no tautness, the pace is flabby and the story gets far too complicated with the twists not being that much of a surprise. The direction seemed indicative of lack of experience or ease.

Overall, not horrendous but severely lacking in many areas. 3/10 Bethany Cox

Yes it's another low-budget Direct-to-video Dolph Lundgren film but this time he's surrounded by a damn decent cast of B-movie performers such as, Vinnie Jones, Robert Davi & Billy Zane.

Big old beefcake Dolph plays Axel, the head of security to a family of criminals but when the family falls apart & their empire begins to crumble Axel leaves & comes back three years later to find out what really happened & why.

Dolph is fine as always & plays the same type of special skilled Bad-Ass that he usually plays. Billy Zane plays one of the criminal families sons & big bro & goes to jail for three years when nutter Vinnie Jones takes over the family business with his uncle Robert Davi (with a dodgy British accent) & everyone is paranoid of each other because of the families fallout three years earlier. There's alot going on here with lots of twists & turns & raunchy scenes & some action here & there. Blood of Redemption is more of a crime thriller than an all out action flick & the cool cast do their best & are all pretty good.

I found Blood of Redemption to be entertaining & i liked it & i was surprised by the ending.

At times this little B-movie felt like a very low rent "The Departed" just mildly sometimes.

I did enjoy the cast of B movie veterans as I'm a fan of Dolph Lundgren (The Punisher, Battle of the Damned) & Robert Davi (Maniac Cop 2&3, Predator 2) & i don't mind Billy Zane (Demon Knight, The Phantom) & Vinnie Jones (Escape Plan, The Condemned) & the actors in the movie were fine too.

Nothing special but still a fun B-movie Crime Thriller.

I was curious about how this film is and I must say that I'm happy that I've allocated the time to watch it.

I must reckon that Dolph Lundgren was one of the reasons which lead me to this. I've seen recently a few new films with some 'action- colleagues' that aren't anymore in their first youth and I must say that Lundgren is still in a good shape. And the film helped him.

He's somehow involved in all the events as an observer, but he keeps himself away of the things... and when he's in everything is developing in a fast sequence.

Considering the budget I think that they've done a good job that deserves some credit.

The plot is quite full of suspense and the way on how everything is told is quite attractive. You have action, situations that don't look as you would think and a few sex scenes.

As a conclusion, a very pleasant action film.

You have some really big names in the B-movie department participating in this. Be it Billy Zane, Vinnie Jones and/or Dolph Lundgren. The movie is very predictable (from the starting "end", to the flashback after that until the conclusion). Lundgren plays a convincing lead, even if you might not believe his relationship to a much younger woman he is having during the course of the movie.

The whole twist of the movie though does rely on some very shaky grounds and it will leave you shaking your head at the end. The action is nicely done. Though nothing to get too excited about. Don't look for a message either, watch if you're a fan of one or more of the actors though