Knuckle up for some underground martial arts fighting! Blood and Bone stars Michael Jai White (MJW) as a martial artist so badass he barely has to speak- his swagger and skills do all the talking.
Bone (Michael Jai White) has a bone to pick with evil mob boss James (Eammon Walker). Bone’s fresh out of prison and looking to start a new life in the world of illegal underground fighting. Good job, Bone! Way to turn over a new leaf. He gets involved with the fighting tournaments and ends up butting heads with local crime lord James (the villain, who is so unremarkably named I kept forgetting he was the baddie) in an attempt to make good on a promise he made to a dying friend.
Blood and Bone walks down the mediocre road with the best of them. As a direct to DVD movie, it was neither great, nor terrible. Bone is portrayed as such an untouchable fighter that there is no dramatic tension in the film. There’s never a question as to who is going to win any given fight, and every now and then it’s okay to have a film that’s an indulgent string of one-sided brawls.
The greatest thing about this film is the fight choreography. It features other martial artists/MMA fighters such as Matt Mullins (Mortal Kombat), Bob Sapp (Conan the Barbarian), Kimbo Slice (The Scorpion King 3), Maurice Smith, Gina Carano (Haywire), and Ernest “The Cat” Miller (The Wrestler). Things get rough with all these powerhouses on screen, and MJW is at the front of it all with some amazingly powerful kicks and muscles that ripple for miles. (I think I just found my new favorite martial artist!) All the fights looked great and were pretty brutal, but when looking at the whole film, there just weren’t enough of them. There are some long spells of talking between the fights, but the dialogue will teach you some things like, “Profanity is a brutal vice, he that uses it is no gentleman.” Sh*t, it’s a good thing I’m a woman.
Time Until Action Starts: ~ 2 minutes
Baddie: Mob boss James (Eammon Walker)
Best Line: “I need you to deliver a message. I want you to tell every motherf***er behind these walls that if they get the notion to F*** with me…don’t!” -Bone
Best Takedown: Four guys approach MJW like they’re going to beat him up. Silly boys thinking they can beat MJW with only four against one. He confidently meets them head on with one jump in which he kicks all of them to the floor. Holy Zod balls! He got off so many kicks in one jump he looked like he had extra legs.
Action Rating: 2 Bones, out of 5.
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I enjoyed Blood & Bone for what it was, I never expect great story telling but like you say the fight scenes were very well done. I do like MJW, Never Back Down 2 and Tactical Force are two other decent movies of his.
I do tend to avoid non-Asian fight/martial arts movies as they’re not that good, although Ninja Assassin was a very fun movie with a good level of action.
I think that “Blood and Bone” is a pretty bad ass flick that delivers the goods for martial arts fans, I know I really enjoyed it and feel that it is one of the best recent American chopsocky titles. I also really like Michael Jai White, ever since “Spawn” in ’98. he should be a big star by now, but the movies seem to favor imitation tough guys like Matt Damon or Keanu Reeves. Moor’s the pity.