Blood Ties (2014)

In 1974, in New York, the criminal Chris (Clive Owen) is released from prison and his younger brother Frank (Billy Crudup), who is a honest police officer, brings him home expecting that Chris is regenerated. However after an incident, Chris returns to the life of crime, affecting Frank's career and the lives of his ex-wife Monica (Marion Cotillard) and his present wife Natalie (Mila Kunis). But when Chris discovers that the criminal Scarfo (Matthias Schoenaerts) wants to kill Frank that is living with his ex-wife Vanessa (Zoe Saldana), he has to decide whether he flees or save his brother's life."Blood Ties" is a movie with an impressive cast and set decoration, including several cars from the 70's. Unfortunately the story is an unoriginal soap opera that wastes the cast. There are many movies with brothers on the opposite sides of the law and the screenplay of "Blood Ties" is not engaging and does not hold the attention of the viewer. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "Laços de Sangue" ("Blood Ties")

I don't get it. We are supposed to be engaged by the complex relationship and moral dilemmas of these two brothers. But most of the other reviewers (and presumably the filmmakers) don't seem to be bothered by the fact that one of them is a murderous sociopath. This is kind of a deal breaker for me in terms of empathy. And yet, the same brother chooses to spare the life of a man who is an obvious existential threat to his family. Stupid script, hackneyed premise, overstuffed soundtrack, and ridiculous casting, including two lead female actresses (Cotillard and Kunis) who look so similar as to be occasionally confusing. Amateur foreign film making masquerading as a tribute to 70's American crime drama. Viewers would do better by sticking with the real thing, for instance: Mean Streets (art); The Friends of Eddie Coyle (slick); Superfly (genuine American trash). Any of these would be a much more fulfilling and enjoyable use of 2 hours.

I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would grant this stunted flop more than a two at best. Yes, the cast is great and that makes it all the more of a riveting disappointment. James Caan seems like an actor trying to play James Caan. The clichés hit he beach in Coney Island like a tsunami.The 70's effects while pretty consistent are wildly generic and the era continuity flaws albeit not the major problem are still relevant. No, my problem with this film is that it takes insanely capable skilled and even iconic actors and dumbs them down to an idle gray and boring level of energy. Of all the actors chosen for the lead , I mean really a botched casting with Owen. He took Q's from Nicholas Cage and the obvious Goodfellas similarities (tribute or plain plagiarism?) brought this movie to a screeching halt. If fact the only thing that kept the movie running or at least at all memorable was the 70's soundtrack which in itself was nothing major yet the obvious use of 70's hits made it a little more seamless.All of the action takes place in the first 10 minutes. Thereafter a downhill ride.

(66%) A very convincing in terms of period detail crime drama featuring a solid cast and a decent character based story that satisfies through its toe- tapping soundtrack. Clive Owen has a truly fine on-screen presence and he's really great in this, and because he and everyone else are also good, along with the few nice bits of gripping and intense action, meaning that the undebatable flaws in the script, and a couple of minor issues here and there don't really matter that much. This will likely get seen by about half as many people than it deserves, but despite that, and for Mr Clive Owen especially, this is worth a very nostalgic trip to the cinema.