Earth and Blood

A tight 80-minute run time feels wasted on a loop of exhausting action sequences, with little substance behind the perfunctory thrills and violence, in director Julien Leclercq’s (The Crew, The Bouncer) full-blast action movie Earth and Blood.

The story plays out in the remote, dramatic setting of a sawmill. Owner Saïd (Sami Bouajila) and his daughter Sarah (Sofia Lesaffre) are dragged into a bitter drug feud after one of his employees, Yanis (Samy Seghir), finds himself in a spot of cocaine-related bother with a gang. When the crew come to collect, mayhem ensues (along with heavy artillery action).

There’s an inescapable feeling that this film is cannon-fodder for the Netflix behemoth, filler to pile into its genre collections. The hallmarks of your modern action-thriller are all there: the flitting, pulsating highs and the all-too-familiar lows. Some of the lows are felt particularly keenly in this feature, such as paper-thin characters (especially the baddies) and such a reliance on tension followed by a gory release of gunfire and explosions that the formula becomes mundane.

The aforementioned highs, although brief, are still present. Cinematography and location contribute to a grim, foreboding atmosphere, with the grey, brown and dull green pallet further solidifying the cold, bleak scene.

But steely colours and smartly shot action sequences are ubiquitous among these faceless Netflix productions. Although superficially pleasing, Earth and Blood is a strictly unadventurous action movie.

Jake Cudsi

Earth and Blood is released on Netflix on 17^th April 2020.

Watch the trailer for Earth and Blood here: