Blood Out

A seriously tedious piece of work, Blood Out follows grizzled cop Michael Savion (Luke Goss) as he goes deep undercover to avenge the murder of his gangbanging brother (Ryan Donowho’s David) – with Michael’s journey bringing him face-to-face with a whole host of sleazy, disreputable figures (including Vinnie Jones’ Zed and Tamer Hassan’s Elias). Filmmaker Jason Hewitt employs a gritty and frequently obnoxious visual style that immediately alienates the viewer, with the less-than-engrossing atmosphere compounded by the film’s proliferation of incompetent elements (eg the performances, the dialogue, the editing, etc). There is, as a result, simply never a point at which one is able to work up an ounce of interest in the protagonist’s ongoing efforts, and it’s worth noting that even the movie’s action sequences, presumably meant to be a highlight, come off as incoherent and annoying (ie enough with the rapid-fire editing and heavy-metal soundtrack already). The movie admittedly does boast one halfway decent scene, in which Goss’ character commiserates with Ed Quinn’s Anthony over their screwed up families, yet this is hardly enough to compensate for what is otherwise a dull, almost aggressively unwatchable straight-to-video actioner.

* out of ****