BLOOD FATHER : Wednesday 21st September 2016.

It's good to see Mel Gibson back in a leading role in the recently released 'BLOOD FATHER', and for the first time since 2012's 'Get The Gringo' which he also Co-Wrote and Co-Produced and which whilst hardly a Box Office sensation was a welcome return to form for the former Hollywood A-List Actor, Writer, Producer and Director who had fallen from grace since 'Apocalypto' in 2006. Now in 2016, Gibson is back and playing a bad-ass grindhouse rescue and revenge type in this Jean-Francois Richet Directed film based on the book of the same name by Peter Craig. Gibson has received much praise for his role in this B-Grade movie that for the Actor seeking to make his comeback might be seen as a case of art imitating life. Watch out too for Mel's return to Directing duty with WWII drama 'Hacksaw Ridge' due in November this year. 'Blood Father' had its world premier at this years Cannes Film Festival in May, and was released Stateside in early August, before its Australian release on 1st September.

Mel's character John Link is a Vietnam War Veteran, an ex-convict out on parole and a former alcoholic still sharing the love at regular AA meetings and trying to live off the grid in the outback desert so as not to draw any unnecessary attention to himself with the local authorities. He lives in a beat up caravan trailer on the edge of a hicksville community eeking out a living as a tattoo artist, whilst under the watchful eye of his sponsor and parole officer Kirby (William H. Macy) whom he seems to have a pretty solid relationship with based on mutual respect, and an understanding of their fractured lives that have brought them both to this point.

Essentially we join Link celebrating two years of being off the booze and ably supported by his friend Kirby. Link is fighting plenty of inner demons, one of which is having lost all contact with his sixteen year old daughter Lydia (Erin Moriarty) who has got tied up with all manner of low life nasty criminal types down Mexico way. Her boyfriend manages 'stash houses' for the local drug cartel, and discovers that some residents renting one such stash house have stolen a stash of cash hidden in the walls of a remote rental property. This boyfriend, Jonah (Diego Luna) who has designs on becoming a drug kingpin rocks up to his stash house with every intention of making the residents pay for their misdemeanours, with Lydia and his entourage in tow. Jonah orders Lydia to shoot and kill the woman of the house to prove her love for him, but Lydia can't bring herself to commit the act, despite having just snorted a nose full of cocaine. In the ensuing melee, Lydia turns the gun on Jonah and shoots him in the neck accidentally, and promptly bolts out the door, believing her boyfriend to now be dead.

As a result she goes on the run from both the local police and the drug cartel with only her estranged Dad to turn to. Out of desperation she calls her Dad, asking for a loan of $2,000 in cash so that she can make a fresh start and lie low until the heat subsides. John is surprised to hear from her after such a prolonged period of absence and the two agree to meet in Santa Monica, where John will pick up his daughter and bring her back to his trailer in the desert where he hopes they will reconnect and make up for lost time. In doing so he under estimates her drug induced and alcohol fuelled state, and the fact that her boyfriends posse will be hot on her trail seeking retribution. The two get reacquainted over a few days, before one night Jonah's posse arrives looking for Lydia and make a damn nuisance of themselves that results in John's trailer getting shot to pieces and overturned. However, Kirby and his own trailer park posse arrive to save John and Lydia from certain death, allowing the two to go on the run before the local Police arrive.

And so the two hit the road to evade the Police and those pesky drug cartel types aided by some they come up against and hindered by others. John is reasonably well connected and we learn that he served prison time to cover the misdeeds of Preacher (Michael Parks) who is a former friend. The passing of time and the fact that Preacher is now living in a near state of poverty provides a different motivation for Preacher and his wife Cherise (Dale Dickey) who know that there is a $30,000 reward on Lydia's head and they are both on the run from the law. John feels that he is owed something for remaining silent while in prison all those years. Escaping from gun point at the hands of Preacher and his wife, John and Lydia make their getaway on John's old Harley-Davidson Softail, which Preacher had been minding all this time. On the highway John and Lydia are pursued by two motorcycle riding hitmen, who are both subsequently killed.

Father and daughter then check into a local motel. John shaves off his beard and Lydia dyes her hair blond, while the news channels are full of reports of the two fugitives on the run. John visits an old contact in prison to gather information on Jonah and his family and cartel connections to check exactly what he is dealing with, while Lydia is to sit tight. However, Lydia receives a call from Kirby advising her that she is in imminent danger and make her way to a public place where she will be safe, such as a movie theatre. We subsequently learn that Kirby has been captured by Jonah's henchmen and is giving these instructions under duress. Lydia is called out of the movie theatre and confronted by Jonah - very much alive but sporting a gaping bullet wound in the neck, from her hand.

Lydia is taken captive and used as bait to entrap John with a rendezvous at some secluded spot in the desert off the highway. While John is speaking with Jonah over the phone receiving his set of meeting instructions, he hears the gunshots in the background dispensing with Kirby. Before making off for the meeting point now mightily pissed off, John returns to Preachers place to pick up some munitions that he knows are stashed away - a landmine and some hand grenades. He drives off to the agreed meeting place and parks his motor cycle in the path on the dirt track blocking the access of Jonah's SUV, and props up his bike using the landmine which becomes armed in the process. With John and Lydia is in the back of the Jonah's SUV awaiting certain death, two of the henchmen have to clear the Harley-Davidson out of the road. Needless to say, dislodging the landmine and KaBoom! two down three to go!

In the ensuing fracas inside the SUV John overpowers one of the henchmen, but Jonah escapes after an exchange of fire power having been shot. He limps off into the sunset, leaving a professional hitman to dispense with John and Lydia from an overlooking hill top. In the duel that follows, both John and the hitman shoot each other. The hitman dies instantly, and John falls besides the car to be comforted in his death throes by his daughter.

Soon afterwards, the Highway Patrol arrive en masse and pick up Jonah wandering aimlessly in the desert, although I have to say I am not sure who would have alerted the local Police, or how they would have known this shit was going down in some remote hidden away location in the desert! In the closing scenes Jonah is wearing a prison issue orange suit and is surrounded by Johns former prison mates who know that their friend died because of the new incarcerated inmate. We then fast forward a year, to find Lydia at that same AA meeting spot where her father attended stating she has been clean for a year now, and how she misses her Dad.

I enjoyed this simple yet well told story of revenge, retribution and family reconnection. Gibson is on fine form as the father figure given an unexpected second chance to make amends with his estranged daughter and prepared to go to any lengths to protect her so that she can make something of her life, and learn from his own mistakes. Featuring plenty of gun play, chase sequences, emotion and a grizzled world weary lead character dispensing his own brand of justice none of this is over the top for the sake of cheap thrills, but are shown in the context of a grounded father/daughter relationship prevailing at any cost. Catch it while you still can on limited release and give Mel Gibson a second chance - I don't think you'll be disappointed!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-