BLOOD OF REDEMPTION (2013) **

After watching Altitude as part of the Direct to Video Connoisseur Podcast, I decided to take a chance on another latter-day Dolph Lundgren movie.  Blood of Redemption had the makings for a good one.  First off, get a load of the fantastic cast:  Vinnie Jones, Billy Zane, Robert Davi.  Sounds right up my alley, doesn’t it?  While the ingredients for success were there, the recipe left something to be desired. 

Dolph stars as Axel, the loyal bodyguard of a mobster family.  The patriarch of the clan, Sergio (Robert Miano) is about to retire, and he tries to convince his eldest son Quinn (Zane) to do the same.  When Sergio is assassinated, it’s up to Axel to figure out who was behind the hit and get revenge.

Blood of Redemption commits a lot of the deadly sins that can sink a DTV actioner.  First and foremost, it spreads its cast too thin.  They don’t get much screen time together, and when they do, it comes in small chunks.  It also relies far too heavily on narration in hopes to tying all those moments together.  In fact, it seems like Dolph’s sole purpose in the early going is that of a human exposition dump as he narrates the various flashbacks to get you up to speed on all the characters. 

Speaking of which, each time a new character is introduced, there’s a title card with their name on it accompanied by a whooshing sound effect.  This is one of my least favorite trends in recent DTV movies and I sank a little more in my seat each time a new character was introduced.  Another irritating trend in the DTV action world is the overreliance on painfully obvious CGI muzzle flashes and bullet hits during the shootouts.  Blood of Redemption features a lot of them, and it’s enough to make you wistful for the days of old-fashioned squibs.

It’s not all bad though.  There are occasional glimpses of awesomeness here that help to make it endurable.  As long as I’ve been watching these things, I never would’ve guessed I’d see the day when Robert Davi and Vinnie Jones would play father and son!  (You even get to hear Davi doing an English accent!)  Zane and Jones have good chemistry during a shady-deal-gone-wrong scene, enough to make you wish they had more scenes together throughout the movie. 

Dolph has a quiet intensity that powers his scenes.  Unfortunately, he spends way too much time in a hotel room trying to put the pieces of the plot together.  At least he gets to participate in the best fight scene of the movie when he busts into a sex club and winds up brawling with a karate-kicking dominatrix.  Fleeting moments like this almost redeem Blood of Redemption, but the fractured narrative prevents the film from getting your blood pumping.

Director Giorgio Serafini also worked with Dolph on Ambushed, Puncture Wounds, and The Tracker. 

AKA:  Outrage Gang.

Direct to Video Connoisseur’s review of Blood of Redemption can be found here:  www.dtvconnoisseur.blogspot.com/2013/11/blood-of-redemption-2013.html