You
would think two recovering addicts would go to a tightly controlled “Club Med”
environment for their honeymoon. Instead, the Grants visit the most corrupt
island in the Caribbean. They stay on the wagon, but even more serious problems
develop. When the new Mr. disappears, the new Mrs. will unleash all her
street-fighting skills to find him in John Stockwell’s In the Blood (trailer
here), the
newest vehicle for MMA star Gina Carano, which opens this Friday.
Ava’s
father Casey was an original hardcase, who taught her how to fight good and
hard. Even during her strung out days, following his untimely demise, she could
take care of her would be predators. She cleaned up when she met the
well-heeled Derek Grant in rehab. His father is not exactly thrilled with their
union, but has stopped fighting it. Aside from a little dust-up in a club,
their honeymoon is all very sweet and romantic—until the zip-line accident.
Unfortunately,
that is not even the worst of it. Mysteriously, the ambulance carrying Grant to
the central hospital never arrives with the patient. Of course, the fat and
lazy police chief is happy to shift suspicion onto his ex-junkie wife, finding
a receptive ear in old man Grant. Determined to find her husband, Ava Grant
sets out to give the Jack Bauer treatment to every lying witness and corrupt
cop in her path.
In the Blood is a pretty
straight forward martial arts programmer, but it maintains Carano’s viability
as an action star. There are several down-and-dirty fight sequences that nicely
showcase her chops. She also gets nice support from a colorful cast of
supporting characters, including Luis Guzmán and Danny Trejo (who kills it in
his final scene). It is also impressive to see Stephen Lang continues to get
rougher and tougher with age during his brief flashback scenes as dear old dad.
As a Twilight alumnus, Cam Gigandet
does not inspire much confidence, but he manages to scratch out some okay
chemistry with Carano.
For
genre fans, In the Blood could be
considered the rough equivalent of early Van Damme films. The plots were never
extraordinary, but they were serviceable enough to build up his credibility as
an action star and a romantic lead. In
the Blood serves the same function for Carano, even with its unfortunate
and potentially spoilery title. Stockwell does an okay job framing the action,
but he is no Isaac Florentine, let alone a Dante Lam or Wilson Yip.
