Action Movie Reviews: Blood and Bone (2009)

Blood and Bone (2009)
Director: Ben Ramsey
Starring: Michael Jai White, Julian Sands, Eamonn Walker, Dante Basco and Nona Gaye
IMDB: 6.7
RT: Not Available
Box Office: Not Available

Summary-

Isaiah Bone gets out of a Los Angeles prison and enters the underground street fighting world in order to fulfill a promise to a dead friend.




Review (Spoilers!)-

I have slowly become a big Michael Jai White fan. He played a small but memorable role in The Dark Knight but his performance as Black Dynamite is what really made me a fan. I really think Black Dynamite is one of the greatest action/comedies of all time! So when I saw a martial arts film starring Michael Jai White on Netflix I knew I had to watch it. While the end result is not a good movie by any stretch, it does do enough to entertain.

The film opens with Bone in prison taking a piss. Some scary looking inmates (including youtube sensation Kimbo Slice!) come to shank him in the bathroom. He goes on to thoroughly kick their asses and the film cuts to the opening title. The opening is quick and to the point and immediately shows off White's impressive martial arts skills.

Bone is released from prison and heads to what seems like the most random place possible to rent a room. He stays in a house where this lady and old man take care of what I assume are foster kids. They live in a pretty rough neighborhood but the lady and the old man try to keep the kids out of it. Bone soon finds the underground fighting venue and watches as the wealthy and sadistic hustler James (Eamonn Walker) brings his scary looking fighter named Hammerman (Bob Sapp) to fight. This dude is a massive and insane man that will pretty much kill anybody he fights. 

Former NFL Player and MMA Fighter Bob Sapp

After Bone watches Hammerman decimate an opponent that was promoted by Pinball (Dante Basco) he convinces the promoter to give him a shot at a fight. Bone proves that he has very impressive fighting skills and Pinball begins to set up some fights for him. Michael Jai White shows he is very skilled and is fun to watch fight. Bone works his way up to get himself a chance to fight Hammerman. He also has his eye on James's girlfriend which seems like it may cause some conflict. Eventually he gets himself a chance to fight Hammerman and he kicks his ass. 

This gets James's attention and he invites Bone to his place to talk some business. James explains how he wants to become more than just a street hustler and that he wants to have an in with the wealthy white guys. So he wants to have Bone fight the worlds best underground street fighter. James tries to convince Bone by letting him take his girl. This is where Bone's true motivations are revealed. We find out that the girl used to be his best friend in prison's wife. James had him killed in prison in order to get this girl and Bone had made a promise to take care of his wife and son when he got out. He checks the girl into a rehab clinic because she has developed a massive drug addiction and we also find out that the reason he was living at that house is because one of the kids is her son. I thought that was a bit of a stretch but at least it explains some things.

The third act sees the plot begin to collapse a bit. The old man in the house is randomly killed by dogs and then its revealed that it was by James for no apparent reason. James gets Bone into the fight with the top street fighter but Bone decides he doesn't want to do it so James freaks out. The plot continues to devolve into chaos and things make less and less sense until it leads to a final fight. Bone shows up at a very wealthy man's house and has to fight the top street fighter. I actually really liked this fight scene!

It's pretty clear this is more of a B or C list action film. The supporting actors are not particularly good and the writing is pretty bland. That being said Michael Jai White does a decent job holding the film together and the production quality is high enough to make this watchable.

Final Thoughts-

I still really like Michael Jai White and will be interested to follow his career. I know that he does have a role in the upcoming Fast and Furious movie so we will see if he can have some more main stream success. This film reminds me a lot of the Jean-Claude Van Damme film Lionheart (which I liked) but with slightly higher production quality. As far as action films go the story is not that bad but I would still only recommend this to hard core action and martial arts film fans.

MY RATING-

2.5 out of 5

-Chris "Da Franchize" Hart