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Gina Carano obviously deserves roles in films with significantly bigger budgets than this one. Nevertheless, the fact remains that she will never get a leading role in Hollywood, because she does not fulfil the physical criteria imposed by Tinseltown producers. It is not a coincidence that she was given her first leading role, in Haywire, by genre provocateur Steven Soderbergh, who is one of harshest critics of the Hollywood system. Unfortunately, we can only expect her future career path to continue with respectable supporting roles in top-tier productions and leading roles in straight-to-video B-movies. In the Blood is nothing to be ashamed of; on the contrary, it is a film that surprisingly brings honour to its star. Despite the mistaken expectations of some fans, this tropical variation on Taken does not offer a whirlwind of action scenes, but rather a thriller focused on the main character advancing through various constituent revelations. It’s true that In the Blood is far from being a match for the aforementioned French-made masterpiece in terms of dramaturgical cohesiveness and the dynamism and intensity derived from the settings in which the protagonist operates. On the other hand, however, the concept of reversing the standard gender roles in action movies brings a certain freshness to the film in that it gives the character the possibility to not just be a run-of-the-mill killing machine, but to also occasionally show a human side. Thanks to this, and of course to Gina Carano’s charisma and physical presence, we have here a welcome alternative to ridiculously testosterone-fuelled B-movies. This overall concept is marked by the limitations of the action scenes and their execution in a chaotic style that denies viewers the usual visual pleasure of action money shots and instead focuses on depicting effectiveness, but without presenting the character’s fighting ability as her sole defining trait. Thanks to the fact that the film does not define its protagonist only as an action object (and other elements such as the romantic introduction), it can be said that something particularly unique has been created – an action film for women in which even the viewer’s usual roles of worshipful admiration and active projection of themselves onto the character are also reversed. (2014.05.01)

Gina Carano effortlessly achieves what Salma Hayek can only dream of in Everly, she’s good with action. Along with the handheld camera and fairly atmospheric portrayal of the dark streets of the dangerous neighborhoods of Puerto Rico, she’s probably the only thing that stands out in this hackneyed film about the search for a lost husband. Gina certainly has more to offer with a more capable director of the action genre. (2015.08.02)