Rent it
Summary
Blood and Money is worth watching for fans of Tom Berenger who I consider an underrated talent; the movie itself is nothing spectacular and is more of a thriller than an action movie but the final 30 minutes has enough tension to make it a decent rental.
Plot: A retired veteran hunting in Northern Maine stumbles across a dead woman and a large sum of money.
Review: When I first saw the trailer to Blood and Money with Tom Berenger I thought it looked like it could have easily been a new Sniper movie but the character of Jim Reed is quite the opposite of Beckett.
Where Thomas Beckett is a man of honour, Reed is an old man who is rather pathetic essentially living in his truck and driving around a snowy tundra in Maine hunting deer. He is sick, haunted by loss and grief losing all purpose in his life.
The first half is very slowburn but it sets up the atmosphere and characters nicely and I’ve always enjoyed movies with criminals looking for stolen money. The cold temperatures and locations help to portray Reed’s total isolation and detachment from the world. The dialogue feels natural and there’s nothing clunky but I thought the criminals were portrayed as really dumb so you never really view them as much of a threat.
As a concept it’s been done many times but in this case our protagonist is far from a hero and although at first he seems like a decent enough fella, when he takes a bag of money after accidentally shooting one of the thieves he becomes arguably more ruthless than any of them. By the end you understand why he wanted the money but you can work that out pretty early on.
My mindset throughout this movie was “that looks bloody cold” but then I do live in Canada so I should be used to it by now. Reed looks like he’s ready to keel over at any moment and he has not had an easy life; despite his flaws we do sort of take to him as watching someone who has hit rock bottom is never fun.
In terms of action it’s mostly just a few shoot-outs but this is really more of a character piece than an action movie. It gets quite tense but due to the criminal’s sheer stupidity it doesn’t get as nail biting as it maybe could have been.
The music score sounds exactly like you would expect it to and works perfectly in establishing the mood which is generally cold and joyless.
Overall, Blood and Money is a diverting one-time watch but I doubt you would want to watch it again; if you’re a fan of Tom Berenger like I am then it might be worth a look when it hits Netflix.