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Movie:		6.0
Picture:		8.0
Sound:		7.0
Extras:		4.0
Score:		6.0

Director(s):	Ben Ramsey
Writer(s):	Michael Andrews
Starring:	Dante Basco • Eamonn Walker • Julian Sands • Matt Mullins • Michael Jai White • Michelle Belegrin • Nona Gaye
Genre:	Action • Martial Arts
Website:	http://www.bloodandbonemovie.com/
Release Date:	September 15, 2009
Rated:

List Price:	DVD - $19.49
Amazon:

Let’s be clear – Blood and Bone is an above average MMA beat-em-up flick. But since that’s a genre that right now encompasses a whopping six, perhaps even seven films, that’s not really saying much. Blood and Bone is the kind of film where characters say lines like: "You had my friend Johnny murdered in prison, after you sent him there for a crime he didn’t commit.”; where illegal bare knuckle brawls take place in inner-city parking lots close to busy intersections; where groups of heavy set gentlemen covered in ink and decked out in bling swagger around wearing sunglasses at night.

Into this neon drenched arena steps Bone (Michael Jai White of Spawn fame, also producing), a stoically badass fighter freshly released from prison and on a mission to avenge his friend’s death and rescue his loved ones from under the boot of local kingpin James (Eamonn Walker, slapping the scenery between two hunks of bread and taking a gigantic bite). The international underground street fighting business, so we’re told, is the biggest moneymaking fight game, period. Of course the idea of a black man being in charge of something that lucrative is just absurd. So enter Julian Sands (further confirming his status as quite possibly the worst actor of all time) as James’ boss, head of a cabal of gamblers who leech off of the profits from their prizefighter, Price (Matt Mullins), at $5 million a head. James wants Bone to fight him, but Bone has ideas all of his own.

Depending on how you much you buy into the idea of Medieval warrior culture being practiced in modern day America by martial artists and assassins as seen in such films as The Professional and Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai, Blood and Bone might resonate with you at some level. Bone you see lives like a monk, playing chess, doing Tai Chi, and chasing the rock-slingers away from his landlady Tamara’s (Nona Gay) foster home cum boarding house. She’s from another film entirely and really only serves to give James something to threaten Bone with when he decides not to cooperate.

The plot’s so thin it's anorexic. But as brainless wee-small-hours entertainment it's priceless; the kind of film you watch with an Advil and a bacon burger to kick your hangover on a Saturday morning. As a martial artist White is the absolute business, delivering knockout blows with a ballet dancer's grace and kinetic beauty all too frequently absent from these kinds of pictures. As an actor he can barely string two sentences together, acting with a furrowed brow and a glare that suggests he just bought a load of really expensive tropical fish and that they all died.

Quietly stealing the whole show is Dante Basco as the hustler-with-a-heart-of-gold who manages Bone’s bouts. Constantly running his mouth to great comedic effect he introduces one huge brute who is apparently gay and fights under a hairnet and curlers as: “The Homicidal Homosexual; The Savage Faggot; The Queer Who Instills Fear." It really is just that kind of movie. Oh, and there is also a cameo by Kimbo Slice, as a shower room rapist, no less.

DVD Bonus Features

A behind the scenes featurette proves most enlightening, indicating that scripter Michael Andrews has more than twenty years experience teaching karate, and was most interested in tackling the disconnect between martial arts then and now and its transition from sport to business. Noble sentiments and an interesting idea, but neither of which sadly seem to have made it onto the screen. Also included is a commentary track featuring both cast and director.