Nowhere in AA’s 12 step programme is it written that to make amends for being a crappy parent you must you go forth and put a bullet in the head of the Mexican gang leader who recruited your messed up daughter. But that’s exactly what Mel Gibson’s character does in this trashy thriller, turning the dial up to 11 as the dad coming to the rescue of his little princess.
Gibson is pumped up like a new tyre to play Link, an ex con who’s gone straight after a prison stretch. He’s busy making a few bucks tattooing rednecks in his trailer when his 17-year-old daughter Lydia (Erin Moriarty, the camera focusing more on her butt in tiny denim shorts than her face) shows up in trouble and on the run. ‘Blood Father’ is a silly but fun addition to the canon of post-‘Taken’ geri-action movies.