The dialogue goes like a Gatling gun and the action is its match.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 27, 2016

Blood Father boasts enough momentum and lively banter to compensate for any generic leanings. Robert Gantz' scorched cinematography keeps the heat on, even during quieter moments.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 27, 2016

Some of the dialogue sounds a little written, though Gibson's tendency to bellow his lines like a wounded bull elephant compensates and carries us along with the story.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 9, 2016

Gibson is only 60 years old, a few years younger than Liam Neeson, and so could conceivably continue appearing in action movies like this for years to come. He clearly has the knack for it.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 6, 2016

There's an unexpectedly engaging performance from Gibson and terrific supporting turns from William H Macy as his neighbour and AA sponsor, and from Erin Moriarty as his wayward daughter.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 6, 2016

In the grizzled spectacle Gibson willingly makes of himself, it has a B-movie equivalent of that A-plus Mickey Rourke comeback, delivered with just enough clout to count as a step in the right direction.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 6, 2016

There are few more exhilarating sights in all of cinema than Mel Gibson unleashing a world of hurt on a bunch of crack-eyed, greasy-haired crooks.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 5, 2016

This is Mel Gibson back to doing what he once did best, just older and grumpier. The movie has problems but delivers when it needs to.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 4, 2016

A silly but fun addition to the geri-action genre.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 3, 2016

It's no masterpiece, but it's a moderately enjoyable ride and it's good to see Gibson back on form for the first time in quite a while.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 2, 2016

This one is workmanlike - choreographed with skill and without pretension. It does the job.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 1, 2016

As entertainment, Blood Father is superior to many in its genre - and at less than 90 minutes, it's over before there's much time to consider what, if anything, the filmmakers might be trying to say.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 1, 2016

Pretty much gives you all that you could want from a pulp fiction in which Mel Gibson plays a grizzled loner inking skin in a spot called the Missing Link Tattoo.

| Aug 25, 2016

The movie is pretty good.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 20, 2016

The film works, that's it, and for genre fans this is one ferocious underground throwback worth putting forth the effort to see.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 19, 2016

Mel Gibson's grizzled, scruffy ex-con is a revelation, a consistently compelling character caught in a hole he thought he'd already dug himself out of.

| Original Score: B+ | Aug 13, 2016

Things come to a halt before the going gets really good.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 12, 2016

An efficient and pleasurable bad-man-tries-to-go-good exposition that gives Mel Gibson ample opportunity to flex his now-somewhat-grizzled movie-star muscle.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 12, 2016

The movie's a small gem: a good old-fashioned chase picture, thickened with pulp.

| Aug 11, 2016

A violent, grungy, Peckinpah-lite action thriller that's worth checking out just to be reminded how powerful an actor Mel Gibson continues to be-even if the parts aren't coming like they once were.

| Original Score: B | Aug 11, 2016