“You see how serious this is.”
Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear was a callback to late JCVD direct to video churn, adequate but uninspired filmmaking for a nice audience.
Blood and Bone is an example of how surprisingly entertaining direct to (now) Blu-Ray can be done so right, even when it succumbs to formula.
Bone (how does one get that nickname) is newly released from prison, surprising given in the opening scene he belts crap out of half a dozen would be rapists in the showers. He makes a beeline for a run down home in an urban area, querying the ‘Room for Let’ sign and settling in, with the single mother earnestly querying whether she should be concerned about her new tenant. Bone shakes his head, but then hilariously only a short time later when he is told “You lookin’ kinda hard“, he responds with a deadpan “Hard not to”.
After spending the day playing chess with the harmless old man on the front porch, Bone is talent spotted by a yappy Asian guy who runs the local street fight circuit. The pair team up to lay waste to the usual contenders, all in quick succession and with little difficulty. This attracts the eye of an Idris Elba looking guy who holds higher aspirations.
Idris Elba looking guy (he really does look like him, sounds a bit like him too) sees Bone as an income earner in the highest stakes unsanctioned fight competition known to man, with a ten million dollar buy-in and only a few Big Business types even knowing it exists, one of whom is played by Julian Sands. Idris covets a seat at the Big Business table. He sees Bone as his way in, so he offers him all he can, even his own personal trophy girlfriend.
All very usual, mysterious loner with skills stuff. What differentiates it is Michael Jai White, the guy who played the straight role in Undisputed 2 and the genre lampooning guy in the vastly underrated Black Dynamite. White possesses incredible physical attributes and obvious power, some of his hits really seem to take the victims off their feet. He can also leap and high kick with the best of them.
With Jackie Chan over 60, Jet Li and Van Damme long since irrelevant and Jason Statham possessing more attitude and charisma than fighting ability, the world seems ready for a martial arts exponent to step in and carve out their own niche.
Scott Adkins, Tony Jaa and White seem the likely applicants, with only Iko Uwais currently making waves in the industry, and to date only in the same burgeoning franchise. Out of the first trio I think Adkins has the fighting and acting ability but lacks charisma, Tony Jaa trumps all athletically, but I don’t think he could handle the English language conversion and his films are already diminishing in quality rapidly.
This leaves MJ White. His fighting prowess is unquestioned. He has acting skills, character and it seems charisma to burn. He single-handedly takes this JCVD replica and elevates it into something worth tracking down.
Consider this his formal application for martial arts cinema stardom. It’s a pity that no-one yet seems to have seen it. Right now there seem to be more promising fighters than there are vehicles for them to highlight their skills. This is one area where modern Hollywood has clearly dropped the ball.
Final Rating – 7.5 / 10. In a world where we have Smurfs 2 and 25 Adam Sandler movies that are all exactly the same, someone needs to give Michael Jai White a shot.
