In this film 'In the Blood', we get to meet Ava (Gina Carano), and Ava really loves her some Derek (Cam Gigandet). These two kids have been through some stuff, considering they met in rehab of all places, but they are both clean, in love, and today is their wedding day. Derek's mega wealthy old man Robert (Treat Williams), isn't so sold on this union, even wanting Derek to force Ava to sign a prenup, which I'm sure Ava would've done, but Derek isn't having any of it. The thing is Derek doesn't quite know everything there is to know about his new bride, like the fact that she can kill a man with her bare hands, but really… what are the chances of this particular skill set ever getting used or say coming up in casual conversation? Uh… like super likely. Like in the next ten minutes.
It's all good to start as the couple go to some island near Puerto Rico to do what newlyweds do, and it is nothing but fun. Then Manny (Ismael Cruz Cordova) shows up, looks like a nice enough kid and takes our couple a happening club for some dancing and drinking, and this is where the trouble starts. Seems this gangster Big Buz (Danny Trejo) really likes Ava and tries to get all chummy with her, completely disrespecting Derek. Then a fight breaks out. We've seen through flashback where Ava's old man Casey (Stephen Lang) might not have been the best dad, at least in regards to nurturing, unless teaching your baby to survive by learning her in the ways of the ass kick is your style of nurturing. In all honesty it was child abuse what he was doing to little Ava, but at the moment these skills are serving Ava quite well.
Needless to say, on the ride home Derek was somewhat concerned about what he just saw, but having a lady who can kick a little ass in the pinch isn't the worst thing in the world. Unfortunately, after an awful zipline accident the next day, Derek turns up missing. Ava is scouring this island trying to find her man but he is absolutely nowhere to be found. Eventually
Derek's old man has to be called and naturally he thinks Ava is running some kind of scam, but all Ava wants is her man returned to her safe and sound. Since the police, led by the suspect officer Chief Garza (Luis Guzman), are of little help, Ava is forced to take matters into her own hands. That's the last thing anybody on this little islands wants. They just don't know it yet. But they will learn soon enough.
So… what's awesome about this action film 'In the Blood'? Very simply, Gina Carano is what's awesome about this movie. We can admit that at this point in her relatively young career, Ms. Carano isn't the best actress, meaning she won't be taking any roles from Meryl Streep anytime soon, but Meryl won't be taking any from Gina either because Meryl can't do what Gina can do. Not a lot of people can do what Gina can do. Gina Carano is a whirlwind of ass kicking mayhem and watching her do her thing is worth the price of admission all by itself. Also pretty cool about this movie is actor Amaury Nolasco as our main heavy, if for no other reason that this cat seemed to be having the time of life being the heavy in this movie. We are pretty sure what his destiny holds for him at the end of this movie, but it will be sad to see him go.
The actual movie surrounding these two characters… well… it's okay. On one hand we have a movie about this crazed woman running around this island kicking people in the face over and over again… which was the awesome part of this movie… then on the hand we the thriller part of the movie featuring this same crazed woman trying to find clues as to where her betrothed has gone. This part wasn't near as interesting as watching Ava kicking people in the face over and over again. Part of this was because the script went down some rather strange and outlandish avenues in this mystery that they were selling to us. And since this mystery ended up being so intricate and detailed into why Derek was missing, it forced us to revisit a lot of the things that led up to his being missing in the first place, and one thing you really don't want to do in a movie like this is go back and start thinking about stuff. It's death for a movie like this. Then there was the grand finale which was more prison break shootout than what it should've been… this being our star kicking people in the face… and it went on seemingly forever. Had to have been like the last forty or so minutes of the movie.
Still, what 'In The Blood' does well, it does very well, and for that we can thank Gina Carano who should be poised to have a long and glorious career in front of the camera kicking people in the face. We would proclaim that Cynthia Rothrock finally has a worthy successor, but Cynthia was never nowhere near as bad ass as Gina Carano.
