Blood and Bone

 Back around the late 2000s, while mainstream action was having a bit of a... fallow period, shall we say, the Direct-to-Video/Video-on-Demand (VoD from here on out) and the international markets provided a good alternative. It's a similar situation to the resurgence of gore and cruelty in horror a little earlier, and the same root cause is arguably behind John Wick and the dominance of the 87eleven action design style a few years - pendular motion.
 In 2009, the same year the Neveldine/Taylor menace gave us both a Crank sequel and Gamer, John Hyams provided some counterprogramming with his first excellent sequel to Universal Soldier and genre/budget-level stalwart Isaac Florentine did his first Ninja movie with Scott Adkins; Elsewhere in the world Gareth Evans teamed up with Iko Uwais for the first time, Tony Jaa used a freaking elephant as a prop for an incredible climactic fight, and  Johnnie To released his cool as ice Vengeance. (Future VoD king Jessee V. Johnson was still working on lower quality English potboilers).

 But the MVP that year was unquestionably Michael Jai White, who starred in two very different stone-cold  classics: Black Dynamite, an absurdist love letter to all things blaxploitation, and the film we're discussing tonight: Blood and Bone, a throwback to all those '80s and '90s underground fighting tournament movies.

 The first image - of White silhouetted against the sun, purposefully walking towards the camera with a duffel bag slung over his shoulder - is clean and striking enough that at first I thought it was a production logo. That cuts to a kick-ass cold open where White's character, Bone, gets accosted in a prison bathroom by a gang of shank wielding thugs. It... doesn't go well for them, and the final kick of the fight imprints the film's title on the screen. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you usher in an action movie.

 The story itself starts when Bone hires a room at the house of a nice family (led by Nona Gaye). First thing he does is to hit up the local neighbourhood illegal fight ring and convince the local organizer Pinball (Dante Brasco, in an annoying role he and the script manage to make somewhat endearing) to give him a chance and throw some fights his way. Bone seems to be targeting local hoodlum James (Eamonn Walker) and his prize fighter, the 'roided out Hammer Man (Bob Sapp).

 There is a reason for that, of course, one that gets revealed as Bone makes his way up the tournament ladder and impresses James enough to be drawn into his inner circle; The plot will involve a woman (Michelle Belegrin), a rich racist Brit (Julian Sands), and a buttload of MMA and martial artists (Sapp, Gina Carano, Kimbo Slice, Matt Mullins and Ernest Miller).

 It's a solid plot that uses one of my least favorite type of protagonist: the mysterious, infallible, morally unassailable badass who's both indestructible and always four moves ahead of all his opponents*; I'd say it's a Clint Eastwood-style character, but in bringing him down to earth it ends up closer to Steven Seagal. It's a testament to Michael Jai White's outsized charisma that he manages to imbue this  fantasy wish-fulfillment character with a semblance of an inner life. Beyond that, he deploys all his usual likeability, and he looks like a Greek statue come to life. Of course he makes it work.

 But James, the villain, makes just as big an impression: a suave, deeply callous asshole who gets two startling scenes that show how evil he is (one of them set to Wang Chung), but feels he's above the street-level shit and considers himself to be some sort of Samurai. I love how this sets up a [slight spoilers] late-film swordfight, one where Bone chooses to dishonour him by using only the sheath of the Chinese sword he's proffered. Even if I wasn't completely on-board by then, I'd be delighted.

 The fights maybe cut a little more frequently than I'd prefer, but everything is always established and shown clearly, with many varied styles shown off. I shouldn't have to say this, but White's fighting is on-point. There's a little bit of shoddy CGI blood, but what are you going to do.

 Michael Andrews's script adorns the admittedly basic story with a lot of fun little moments, good characters, snippets of wry humour, and solid badass lines. And the direction, by Ben Ramsey, is bloody excellent; Along with cinematographer Roy H. Wagner's constantly roving cameras, they get a very slick, good-looking and propulsive film - I think that out of the action VoD crowd only John Hyams makes better-looking movies.
 It's a shame that an apparently disastrous Dragonball movie derailed Ramsey's career to the point where he hasn't been able to get another film off the ground yet. Much as it was championed by Outlaw Vern and others, this movie also remains sadly underseen when compared to the other two MJW VoD action classics. We never got the brother-avenging sequel that was set up here. That iconic shot of Bone walking out of the sun would never grace another film.

 If this sounds like it might even be marginally enjoyable to you, then it's extremely recommended.

*: This, of course, is established while he's playing chess with a friend.