Bloodtype Online

    A British couple is kidnapped by a rogue group of scientists’ intent on turning them into assassins.  After wiping their memories they then release them to see how they react and if thru the use of implants they can cause them to kill on command.  For a real world test they toss the couple, who don’t even remember each other, onto the streets of a city and monitor what happens.  But elderly member of the group, who has been told they are criminals, decides to dig into their background when things don’t seem right to him.  After discovering that they are innocent and that they have a daughter that has also been kidnapped he decides to help them.  But is he too late to stop the experiment? 

    This is an interesting movie with a story that I’ve never really seen before.  Unfortunately at times the movie does get a bit convoluted and slow.  Not only that but there are long stretches where nothing happens and the story isn’t moved along.  I think that the filmmakers were trying to make a thriller, but it lacks the action that the best movies in that genre all have.  The cast is a mixed bag with the two leads being very sympathetic.  But the actors playing the villains aren’t interesting and give flat performances.  This makes their eventual demise sort of anticlimactic and uninteresting.  The movie also left a bad taste in my mouth with a really stupid twist ending that made no sense at all.   

    Visually the movie is shot to look bleak.  Most of the scenes are either shot in the shadows or light in a way that bleaches all of the color out of the actors and environment.  This is a damn effective technique for a movie like this and sets the tone nicely.  As much as I enjoyed the visuals is about as much as I was disappointed by the action.  The fight choreography in the few fight scenes is bad.  The actors look unprepared and the scenes fall flat for me.  Plus how come a world-class assassin can’t shoot an old man in the head at point blank range?   

    Personally I didn’t enjoy the movie and can’t recommend it.  But if you are a fan of the low budget scene in Europe then perhaps you will find something here that I missed.  

* 1/2

-John “El Juan” Shatzer