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Friday, March 14, 2014

Wicked Blood Blu-ray Review

Reviewed by Allie Schembra
Backed by an all-star cast, Academy Award nominee, Abigail Breslin, plays Hannah, a teenage girl trapped in a corrupt Southern underworld of violence, guns, drugs and biker gangs. Constantly at odds with her older sister, Amber (Alexa Vega), Hannah finds her only refuge in chess, which she plays with her drug-addicted Uncle Donny (Lew Temple). All three live in fear of “Uncle Frank” (Sean Bean) Stinson, a criminal kingpin, who runs the family business with an iron fist, aided by his psychotic brother, Bobby (Jake Busey). But when Amber falls in love with Bill Owens (James Purefoy), an outlaw biker, meth trafficker and Stinson family rival, Hannah devises a plan to pit one against the other in a cunning game of revenge.

Film (3 out of 5 stars)
In a small southern town, Hannah lives with her uncle Donny and her sister Amber. Donny is the local meth cooker, working for his brother, Frank. Hannah escapes her woes by playing chess, until one day she decides it’s time to get her family out from Uncle Frank’s thumb. She asks Frank for a job delivering the drugs to his customers. She meets Bill, one of the clients and begins to forge a somewhat strangely normal relationship with him. Meanwhile, Amber, while at work, meets Bill, who comes in as a customer. Amber and Bill begin a relationship and quickly decide to move in together.

Hannah, moving forward with her plan, delivers some drugs to Bill and shortly after, Bill realizes something is off about them. He goes to Frank, who asks Donny and Hannah if either of them had anything to do with it. Both deny it and Frank says he’ll find out who did. After Hannah and Amber’s other uncle, Bobby, finds out about Amber and Bill’s relationship, he takes his anger out on Amber. When Hannah finds out, she goes to Bill and tells him what happened. Hannah decides revenge is in order lures Bobby to an out-of-the-way location. Meanwhile, Frank goes to Bill’s to confront him about the wrong drugs. After exchanging gunfire, Frank goes to Donny’s drug house (double-wide trailer) seeking help. Hannah arrives and finishes exacting her revenge.

Wicked Blood was better than I thought it would be, though not as good as it could have been. It started a bit slow, but built up to a good ending. Once again, Abigail Breslin gives a good performance, and I didn’t even recognize Alexa Vega. She has changed from the frizzy-haired girl from the Spy Kids movies. Sean Bean puts in a good performance as Frank, though after “Game of Thrones,” it’s hard to see his as anyone other than Ned Stark.
Video (3 out of 5 stars)
Wicked Blood is presented in 1080p High Definition 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The picture was gritty and muted. The black background in Sean Bean’s scenes was really sharp. Everything blended well and nothing was difficult to see. Some of the scenes had too much gold/orange hues and made the characters look weird. Overall though, the picture was good.
Audio (2 1/2 out of 5 stars)
The DTS-HD Master Audio presentation of Wicked Blood also has English with SDH subtitles for the hearing impaired. The volume had to be adjusted numerous times. One minute I could barely hear what was being said and then next, I’m turning it down because my neighbors could probably hear it down the street. It was distracting and took away from the movie.
Extras (1 1/2 out of 5 stars)
The only extras were two to three minute interviews with each of the main cast members: Abigail Breslin, Alexa Vega, Sean Bean and James Purefoy. Not too interesting or exciting. The official trailer was also included.
Summary (2 1/2 out of 5 stars)
Wicked Blood was an interesting movie. It was basically about a southern, white trash family, with one member tying to get out of the family business. The story started slow, but built up into a good climactic ending. All the actors did a good job and it’s a movie I would include in my rotation.

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