Blood of Redemption- Vendetta - Blu-ray

Content: Alex (Dolph Lundgren), nicknamed the Swede, works in Los Angeles as a bodyguard for an influential mob family. He gets along especially well with Quinn (Billy Zane). But one day, the family becomes victims of a devious plot. Quinn ends up in prison and the head of the family is murdered. In one fell swoop, the entire family has lost everything and their adversary Campbell (Vinnie Jones) now calls the shots in town. When Quinn is released from prison, he sets his sights on revenge. With his brother Kurt (Gianni Capaldi) now working for the FBI and his ex Loryn (Jelly Howie) seemingly having a new lover, that leaves only Alex to help him in his quest for retribution. But the Swede already has his very own vendetta planned...

With Blood of Redemption - Vendetta, filmmakers Georgio Serafini (Game of Death) and Shawn Sourgose (Premonitions) have delivered an old-school action thriller. Not only the cast (Dolph Lundgren, Robert Davi) brings back memories of many a genre representative of the 80s and 90s, as there were masses of them in the video stores at the time. The production itself also seems a bit old-fashioned, even if the makers try to spice it up with little visual gimmicks in the style of Guy Ritchie gangster movies. But the fact that the film as a whole feels a bit old-fashioned isn't a bad thing. On the contrary. This gives the film a decent entertainment value, at least for fans of such action B-movies, which then consoles over the somewhat overstuffed story and the fact that Dolph Lundgren moves rather ponderously through the action.

The action sequences themselves are attractively realized. Even though, as mentioned, Lundgren doesn't look as agile as he once did in direct duels, these well-executed scenes are really something to behold. Dramaturgically, the film is a bit overloaded, which does a good job of hiding the fact that the story itself is rather thin and also has some small logic holes. But the production is fast-paced and entertaining enough to make some of these weaknesses forgotten.

This is not to say that Blood of Redemption - Vendetta would be a really good movie. The dialogue is just too flat and the characters too one-dimensionally drawn for that. Still, it's a pleasant surprise that the flick offers much better entertainment than one would give it credit for at first glance. If you've enjoyed such B-thrillers before, you'll get your money's worth here as well. And therefore, especially for such viewers who have hung around a lot in the 80s and 90s in the action sections of their regular video store, there is a clear: Recommended!

Picture + Sound: Like the film itself, the visual realization is also on a good B-movie level. The image is clean, the sharpness is decent, and the coloring is a bit undercooked. This is all satisfactory, yet there is definitely room for improvement in terms of quality. In terms of sound, it is noticeable that the dialogue in the German version sounds a little more powerful, but also much more centrally mixed, while in the English soundtrack they seem a little more harmoniously integrated into the action. Sound effects such as gunfire make for pleasant surround movement on both soundtracks. Good!

Extras: As a bonus, the Blu-ray offers a brief behind-the-scenes look (approx. 11:52 min.), as well as an image gallery and the trailer for the film. A bit scarce, but better than nothing at all.

Conclusion:Blood of Redemption - Vendetta is a decent action B-movie, which has no ideas of its own and overall comes across as a bit overloaded, but still knows how to entertain well. If you appreciate typical video store merchandise from the 80s, you'll get your money's worth here. The Blu-ray presents the film in good picture and sound quality, but the bonus material is quite scarce. All in all, not a masterpiece, but entertaining genre entertainment of the old school. Definitely recommended for fans!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp