Review of Blood and Bone (2009) by Asun G — 02 Feb 2011

Now this is a fun movie.

BLOOD AND BONE (Ben Ramsey, 2009) is a variation on your classic revenge story. A convict (Michael Jai White) takes up residence as a boarder in an inner city neighborhood so he can spend his nights making money as a street fighter. As he works his way up the ladder, he attracts the attention of a powerful crime lord (Eomonn Walker) who is looking to break out of his small time ghetto hustle by managing a fighter who can defeat an MMA fighter managed by his boss. The criminal makes Bone (White) a proposition - fight for him and Bone can have anything he wants, including the villain's beautiful wife (Michelle Belegrin), who Bone seems to know from his past. Will Bone give the villain what he wants? And what are the secrets in his past that compel him to fight? That's the film.

And if you like this sort of thing, it's a good one, a lot of fun, and a cathartic battle between good and evil among the poor. When I was growing up, they made Indian movies like this all the time, melodramatic stories of poor people finding happiness in spite of the evil they find in their own neighborhoods. It's well cast, has good production design, good fight scenes, and an exciting, straight forward story. Movies like this are the inheritors to the legacy of the Blaxploitation film, and though they trade in stereotypes, they aren't exploitative.

I had a lot of fun with BLOOD AND BONE, a lot more than I've had with most big budget action movies lately.