Bloodtype Online

    In the opening credits of the movie it explains how Detective Quentin Conners and his partner supposedly mishandled a carjacking that involved the daughter of a powerful local politician, resulting in her death.  Conners is suspended and his partner is fired for supposedly botching the case in spite of following department policy.  Months later when a bank robbery goes bad and the robbers insist that they will only negotiate with Conners he is pulled off of suspension and brought back to diffuse the situation.  But it seems like the suspects know department policy and use it against the police to escape.  But it appears that they didn’t take anything with them.  Now Conners and Dekker, the young detective assigned by the department to watch him, must try and figure out what they were after.  But as suspects start turning up dead right before they this becomes more difficult.  

    The premise of the movie with the criminals apparently taking nothing in the robbery, as well as the implied connections between Conners and the mastermind of the fake robbery was very interesting.  But the movie makes a very strange turn about half way thru and goes from being clever to very familiar and predictable ground.  I’ll not spoil the plot but something happens that is supposed to shock the audience, which basically ruined the movie for me.  As soon as the event happened I had the rest of the film figured out.  Also from that point the Dekker character becomes some sort of idiot savant crime solving machine.  He beings to unravel the mysteries surrounding the bank robbery with increasingly unlikely leaps of logic that begin to get absurd after a while.  The movie’s ending is both predictable and totally unsatisfying.   

    The performances in the movie are very good.  Action stars Jason Statham and Wesley Snipes are well cast and fun to watch.  Statham also proves again he is a decent actor and Snipes shows he can still deliver a snappy line here and there.  Ryan Phillippe was an interesting choice as Detective Dekker. His performance is all right until his character grabs a motorcycle and chases after a suspect.  First of all he grabs this goofy ass helmet and puts it on before tearing after the suspect.  Can you imagine Clint Eastwood or Mel Gibson wearing a helmet?  From there on I just didn’t buy him as a tough cop.  This is crystallized in his big fight scene with Snipes character.  That guy would take Phillippe and break him in half, but of course somehow Phillippe’s character kicks his ass.  The rest of the cast is filled with recognizable actors who all do a fine job in there roles.   

    Technically this movie is well put together.  It is pretty clear that someone spent some money on this film.  The action sequences are well choreographed and exciting to watch.  This movie has a high energy level and at times is a blast to watch.   Picture and sound is perfect, which is what you would expect from a decently budgeted movie like this. 

    This movie really disappointed me.  It starts off great but ends up being a mediocre by the numbers action movie.  Add the miscasting of Ryan Phillippe as an action star and a movie that had great potential becomes a misfire that is dumped direct to DVD.  Again the film has it’s moments, but overall I can’t recommend a purchase.  If you really need to see this movie then rent it.  You will watch it once and be done with it. 

**

-John "El Juan" Shatzer