Bad Blood (1994)

Director:

Tibor Takács

Writer (WGA):

Neil Ruttenberg (written by)

Release Date:

24 March 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Action

Tagline:

They're brothers bound by blood. Soon they will be tainted by it.

Plot:

A trucker (Lamas) has to come home to help fight mobsters after his brother who embezzled $5,000,000 from them.

Plot Keywords:

Desert Eagle | Bare Butt | Exotic Dancer | Slide Locked Back | Male Nudity

Cast

Lorenzo Lamas	...	Travis Blackstone
Frankie Thorn	...	Rhonda
Hank Cheyne	...	Franklin Blackstone
Joe Son	...	Chang
Kimberley Kates	...	Lindee
John P. Ryan	...	John Blackstone
Sigal Diamant	...	Kim
Cole S. McKay	...	Baggy
Stan Yale	...	Preacher
Beau Starr	...	Bo
Vinnie Curto	...	Will Sharp
Tony Peck	...	Kovacs
Simon Rhee	...	Thug Lee
Kurt Bryant	...	Sacs
Chuck Zito	...	Toots

Also Known As:

Viper (USA) (alternative title)

Runtime:

Portugal:88 min (TV version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Certification:

Australia:M | Iceland:16 | Germany:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Indiana Vocational Technical College - North Meridian Street Campus, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Company:

MDP Productions

Standard direct to video material

As of now, this is the third Lorenzo Lamas movie I've seen as well as the TV series Renegade. The other two being CIA 2: Target Alexa and the absolutely abominable Gladiator Cop. Keeping in mind that from what I've seen of him, he's one of the least charismatic and most wooden "actors" in the genre, I wasn't expecting much from this. I wasn't let down in that aspect as it didn't exactly deliver much but unlike Gladiator Cop, it didn't leave a bad taste in my mouth either.

The plot is standard genre stuff, pretty thin but nothing more or less than I would expect from this stuff. It's not paced particularly well either, and there's a couple of pointless sex scenes which last for several minutes and are only an excuse for some nudity and to extend the runtime but at the same time, it's rarely boring. As for Lorenzo Lamas, there's nothing much I can say for him other than "wooden". There's no better word than that, he's just wooden. As far as acting goes, he simply reads his lines and that's that, without showing any form of emotion or varying his tone. Although I didn't find him as annoying as say, Michael Dudikoff, or Jalal Merhi, he really is poor. Giving him minimal dialogue may have worked better, but unfortunately he is given more than I would have liked to have heard from him.

What saves this from the bottom of the barrel heap is generally good production values and the action scenes that are there are well handled. The fight scenes were better than in other Lamas movies I've seen, and were generally quite entertaining. The villains are suitably despicable, so at least I wasn't longing that they'd just blow away Lamas and that would be the end of it. The climax IS entertaining, and ends with a high bodycount and a large amount of explosions and sparks flying.

Overall, this was a cut above what I'm used to from Lorenzo Lamas, but I still can't recommend it. Overall it's a pretty average direct to video action movie. If there's nothing better on TV then give it a go, but there are many better movies which do pretty much the same thing with much better acting and pacing, so I wouldn't bother recommending you to buy or renting it unless you've already seen most.