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July 28, 2014

Movie Review: Blood Ties (2014)

When hearing about a potential film I will be watching one of the worst words for me to hear is a film is generic. I would rather take awful, because I know with awful different people may have different opinions, but more than likely when people say generic and they know what they are talking about, it usually is the case. Guillame Canetâs, who I remember liking his 2006 gem Tell No One, has created a beautiful looking film, the film is sleek and slick. The production of this film puts the viewer in the 1970's; they paid attention to every little detail about the era. This film does so much background work that it forgets the important part, the script and acting. Clive Owen's accent is horrible, his Brooklyn accent was eye-rolling and very nails to the chalkboard bad. This film has plot holes that you can drive a truck thru. When you look at the movie cover, see the actors in this film and think why this wasn't in the movie theater, you pretty much get what this film is all about.

Blood Ties centers on Billy Crudup's charachter who is a police Detective, a man who is not the brightest and pretty stereotypical. The source of things for him is his older brother played by Owen who is getting released from jail today. Crudup looks pretty uncomfortable about this while Marie played by Lili Taylor looks like she is about to reach orgasm in her over happiness that he is being released. Taylor I love as an actress, her roles in films like Dogfight really established that she is a serious talent; I think her romantic deal with Michael Rappaport really hurt her career.

I reallthy felt this film was your typical NY period piece, the more I discuss the plot the more it will sound like every other film you have seen. The acting in this film is wooden, one dimensional and there is no flow or charisma. It is like people are reading lines and trying to look like they care. I am not really sure who to put the blame on the most, the director or the material and how the actors handled it. As an actor you would think especially a Clive Owen, Crudup, Kunas or Taylor that they have dealt with improv. This film just felt it never had a chance once they started filming and at over two hours this film just becomes more and more boring as it goes on.

By the ending, I was pretty not ready to review this film because I know what my words would say and they would not help this movie sell and probably paint it in a very bad light. On the same token though, it realy seemed that the people behind this film should have put more heart and tried to stand out more instead of falling in the shadows of other films. This film is one of those films that come out on television weekly that when you are bored you tune into till that other show comes on that you truly want to watch. That being said this film is a total fail and not one thing I can recommend about it, other than thank god it is over.

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