66
Metascore
18 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 85TheWrapAlonso DuraldeTheWrapAlonso DuraldeIf you can separate the art from the artist — as most of us do at some point, or there’d be almost no movies or plays or novels or music or paintings left to enjoy — it’s a stone-cold gas.
- 83The Film StageDan MeccaThe Film StageDan MeccaBlood Father, directed by Jean-François Richet (Mesrine, Assault on Precinct 13), works remarkably well as a grindhouse throwback, sporting a screenplay (from Peter Craig and Andrea Berloff, based on Craig’s novel) that’s better than it has any right to be.
- 80The GuardianNigel M SmithThe GuardianNigel M SmithAs comeback projects go, Blood Father is stellar. It’s a wonder Quentin Tarantino, the king of career resurrection, didn’t get to Gibson first. The actors completely tears into the role of Link, a battered and disgruntled ex-con. Richet matches him, delivering a muscular and deliriously entertaining B-movie that is sure to play like gangbusters with genre aficionados.
- 67The PlaylistKevin JagernauthThe PlaylistKevin JagernauthOperating for much of its running time with an equal balance between guilty pleasure grittiness and decent father/daughter drama, the film’s conclusion tips toward the latter in an unconvincing shift toward sentimentality and Life Lessons that not only is out of place, but betrays John’s own code of stoic endurance.
- 67The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyThe A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyWithout Gibson’s baggage, it’s easy to appreciate the movie as a minor throwback to the R-rated action films of the ’80s and early ’90s, which similarly mixed the very lurid and the very wholesome, even if the action scenes don’t live up to the genre’s heyday.
- 63Slant MagazineChuck BowenSlant MagazineChuck BowenThe film shrewdly capitalizes on Mel Gibson's off-screen embarrassments and controversies.
- 60VarietyOwen GleibermanVarietyOwen GleibermanBlood Father is trash, but it does capture what an accomplished and winning actor Mel Gibson can be. Just because he lost his bearings, and his career, doesn’t mean that he lost his talent.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijThe Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijA serviceable piece of B-movie entertainment without an ounce of originality
- 50Screen DailyTim GriersonScreen DailyTim GriersonThe fading, erstwhile disgraced star’s grizzled, weary urgency gives this story some gusto and resonance, but otherwise, Mesrine director Jean-François Richet delivers adequate B-movie excitement only in spurts.