User Reviews

"Lose not the Queen, for ten to one... if she be lost, the game is gone." "Wicked Blood" is a standard mafia movie, but then on a smaller scale. The story of the teenage girl Hannah (Abigail Breslin) who's being taken care of, after the loss of her parents, by her uncle Donny (Lew Temple), which has the appearance of Dr. Emmett Brown from "Back to the Future" but with too much "hillbilly crack" in his system. And then there's also Uncle Frank (Sean Bean). Frank is the local bad guy and head of a mini gang of mobsters. Besides running a striptease tent he has also a lucrative business as manufacturer and supplier of crack. The one who assists him throughout the film is his somewhat crazy, retarded younger brother Bobby (Jake Busey),. Apparently Bobby became slower after Hannah's mother bashed his head with a baseball bat.

Hannah is a passionate chess player (something she probably inherited from Donny who once was State Champion), and she applies the rules of this game in her daily life. Thoughtful and with reason she performs every next move. Eventually, she devises a sophisticated plan to escape from this violent, drug-related world. Throw in an undercover agent, an assault on Hannah's sister and the final revenge, and you have a complete picture of this standard crime film. A film with a story like there are already a thousand made of.

And yet it's not an unpleasant film. And that's thanks to Abigail Breslin who manages to give shape to the character Hannah in a natural and wonderful way. She reminded me of Saoirse Ronan repeatedly. She also has that innocent look, that determination and the all-pervading calmness. Maybe Ronan outclasses her a bit but only with a small lead. Despite the fact that the whole story is a bit exaggerated, improbable at times and thinking about it after wards sometimes pretty laughable, the acting of Abigail Breslin was very convincing and plausible. A small, young girl only skilled in chess who goes to battle against a bunch of ruthless drug gangsters, who are not shy to liquidate someone who complains to much, is something that only could happen to Nancy Drew.

The one I enjoyed the most, was Lew Temple as the crazy, drug addicted low-life Donny. The chess games with Hannah briefly hinted a different picture of him though. That of a reasonably intelligent man who, because of past events and the current situation he is experiencing, recreated the individual as we see it now. The moments when he takes a shot (probably to check the quality) and starts to thrash about, accompanied by loud rock music, I found grandiose.

Sean Bean (Who I've recently saw in CleanSkin) looks like Boromir teleported into modern times. The same faraway look and stoic calmness he constantly shows. I expected him declaring a sentence like "One does not simply ... steal my drugs" any moment.

Despite the mediocre storyline and some irritating (The city where it all takes place is apparently so deserted and desolate as a ghost town along Route 66. Totally no inhabitants to detect) and hilarious (The FBI infiltrating such a crappy,small gang.) moments, it's still a movie you continue to watch. And that is merely due to the solid commitment of the actors and actresses.

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...pretender to the throne of films like "Winter's Bone," this predictable thriller from writer/director Mark "The Killing Jar" Young and his regular cinematography collaborator Gregg "Ditto" Easterbrook isn't a terrible watch, but it's a dispensable one. The cast does well enough with their roles (although Sean "LotR" Bean seems a bit bored with it all), Easterbrook's DP work is at times quite beautiful, and I'm not really faulting Young's direction. Nonetheless, nothing really quite jells; I couldn't manage to buy into this world of backwoods meth labs and a pretty little thing who would settle for ten bucks a pop to be a drug mule. If you're a fan of any of the actors, I suppose it's not going to embarrass any of them too much, but this is one of those films that you're going to forget almost as soon as you've finished viewing it.

Wicked Blood follows the life of a "diamond in the rough" teenage girl brought up in tragedy and hardship. She relates the people in her life to chess pieces and uses concepts of the game to devise a plan as a means to take control of her life. Part of this plan is to join up with her uncle's gang as a drug mule transporting $20K worth of product for $10 a trip. Hilarity ensures… Right!? Wrong.

Instead of this movie taking itself so seriously it should have been made to be more of a situational comedy given the plot. The director seems to try and feign intellect into the story through chess concepts of strategy, but this direction further complicates the overall production value as it give the entire movie muted undertone. Sometimes movies are made just for the sake of making movies and this one is no exception. The adventure of our young, dumpy hero flows well enough, but it was uninteresting at best and often took turns that where pointless and lead nowhere to enriching the story line. The actors did OK to play their part but nothing stood out more than just a day at the office for them.

In some cases, I can identify and concede to a target audience enjoying a film but for this one I'm completely at a loss.

The cast is not bad, the direction's not bad, the story mediocre at best.

On the whole, this movie is a pale imitation of the 1994 film 'Fresh':

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109842/

Though of course there are many differences. The original was set in an inner city ghetto, and involved a mostly Black cast (including Samuel L. Jackson, among others.) This one is set in the hillbilly rural South, and involves a very nearly all-White cast. The original protagonist was a boy; here the protagonist is a girl.

However, both movies/plots involve drugs gangs, life circumstances of hopeless, abject despair, and a chess-minded wunderkind emerging against all odds in such a setting, then plotting and manipulating to extricate themselves and their loved ones from the deadly morass, culminating in a violent denouement with numerous "chess pieces" sacrificed along the way.

Yet in my opinion, the original was vastly better in every respect. It had a more nuanced and intelligent plot, deeper character development, fantastic acting, and overall a more realistic setup and more believable motivation. It was bold, poignant, in some ways ground-breaking and in some heart-breaking. It was in fact 'fresh' -- both in concept and by virtue of being the original. And despite its age, it is -- unfortunately -- still as urgently topical in 2014 as it was back in 1994. To anyone contemplating 'Wicked Blood', I would strongly recommend 'Fresh' instead.

My first thought that this movie gave me was that someone must have done something pretty bad for this little girl to have done that. This movie is carried from start to finish on the hard working shoulders of Abigail Breslin who takes you on this journey with her that Mr. Young has nicely crafted, and done a decent job of directing. The supporting cast are all OK, but they are only there to support the Queen. Nice chess poetry, a bit forced, but it plays out well, and as most would hope. I Enjoyed this movie, and recommend it to all afternoon movie fans. This is not a big drama that will have you weeping for the characters, but is a decent little two against the middle story. Some parts don't work because such a master of her board should have known more about what all the pieces were doing, though things move along fast enough that this can be ignored.

Jesse of www.jesse.ca

Hannah Lee Baker (Abigail Breslin) is an orphan who lives with her meth head uncle Donny (Lew Temple) and flirty sister Amber (Alexa PenaVega). Meth manufacturing and dealing is the family business run by Uncle Frank (Sean Bean) a strip club owner. Hannah likes to play chess with Billy who was once state champion. She recites poetic metaphors about chess pieces and how they relate to her life.

Frank is the powerful King who has people in his way killed. Hannah forces her way into the business as a delivery person, but inadvertently cause problems between Frank and the biker customers when she cuts the meth with vitamin D. At some point in time, Hannah must choose between family and getting out.

The supporting cast was great. Abigail Breslin was not convincing in the lead role. The chess metaphor was a flop. The poetic readings were simply horrible.

A fair action/drama/thriller rental.

Parental Guide: F-bomb, nudity (Claire Frederiksen)