Blood Father

A not very accomplished attempt at retro. The traditionally charismatic Gibson is great, but it lacks directness and impact, it drags too much and is drowning in tons of dialogue filler. The few bright moments are mostly action scenes, or when the cinematographer, or the screenwriter, has a bright moment and there's something cool for a few seconds, which is what we love about these redneck oldschool action movies. (10/09/2016)

A sympathetic action movie that is not as straightforward as it seems at first glance, but there is no need to think about it too much. The main thing is that Mel Gibson did not disappoint me and although I liked Get the Gringo a little more, I had fun from the beginning to the tense end, in which everything was at stake and which was... let's say typical Gibson. (01/29/2017)

A straightforward family hit that has no pretentions and entertains with its bloodiness and great lines. Mel is in his element and enjoys every minute that they let him act. The role suits him and it’s great that the daughter (Erin Moriarty) isn’t just someone to be rescued but she moves the story along. Not much action, but when there is, it’s A-grade. Old school. (08/28/2016)

I’d been pretty much looking forward to this new Mel Gibson movie, but the result threw me off balance a bit. At first, I wanted to warm up by watching the interview that had been prepared for us by Pomo featuring the director and Mel. But the thing was that while the director was full of standard French arrogance, Mel was just sort of standing there and he didn’t really care about anything. So, I was hoping that at least the movie would save the day, but it didn’t. While Mel put in his standard performance, I guess the guy behind the camera must have been drunk or something. It was a strange attempt at a refined shaky camera, which did present nice shots taken at interesting places, but at some points the shakiness was really annoying. Who I also found annoying was the daughter of Mel’s, and that didn’t change until the end of the movie. As they say, there is power in simplicity. In this movie, that simplicity was a bit too straightforward. However, the final action sequence was OK. Too bad that Mel once again got talked into a small-scale flick. (09/19/2016)

This old-school action flick keeps you waiting the whole time for a proper action-packed climax, but fails to deliver it in the end. Californian deserts are a nice location, Mel Gibson holds the movie together, the girl is likeable and one of the hitmen is impressive, but it cannot hold a candle to, for example, Brian Helgeland’s Payback, which sophisticatedly escalates by killing off nasty gangsters. The scenes of violence sequences are great, but 95% of the movie is made up of talking and getting to know each other and, with its weak screenplay, it doesn’t have much in the brain department. [Cannes] (07/07/2016)