BLOOD FATHER opens with a teenager (Erin Moriarty) being refused sale of cigarettes but able to buy ammunition, because America. There is genuine pain to Mel Gibson’s latest comeback performance and frustration at a broken justice system in addition to the expected, and tired, dad-empowerment fantasy. The film has a nice gritty-beautiful aesthetic, visceral and bloody brawls and a few reasonable gags, like John on the phone to his only friend (William H Macey, still rocking his SHAMELESS haircut) for advise on parenting, only for the camera to pull back and reveal their grubby trailers are only about 1000 yards apart. Attempts at injecting philosophical musings into the economic screenplay are laughable, as is midlife Mel missing a lot less than an apparently deadly Sicario, but brutal reality still occasionally intrudes, making this a cut above most TAKEN-alikes, even if it’s not exactly memorable on its own terms. SSP