When you get to the bottom of it, Blood Ties is a movie about brotherhood, regret and redemption. The movie starts out like a out of
control fire hose spraying all kinds of plot lines and character
stubs all over the place. The production of the first half created a staccato feeling and didn't give the audience a
chance to really get to know the characters or story. Unfortunately,
due to poor character development, you don't really get a good sense
of why Chris (Clive Owen's character) jumps into the deep end of
crime after only a couple of set-backs in trying to succeed in a
non-criminal line of work. You also miss out on why Zoe Saldana's
character all of a sudden changes her mind about Frank (Billy
Crudup's character). Finally, about
halfway through the film, what I'm supposed to care about comes
through. It felt like the director was swapped out mid-shoot.
And accents all over the place! Clive Owen can
never really tuck that accent between his legs and the French
speakers, Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts, couldn't cover
themselves either.
I'm giving Blood Ties three stars ***
because it wasn't bad, especially if you can hang out past the mid
point and I wouldn't be opposed to watching it again, but I will
probably never seek it out on my own.
I watched this on Amazon Video.
I watched this on Amazon Video.
I told you that I couldn't make it past the first twenty minutes of this. Maybe I'll give it another try randomly one night.
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