People just don't act like this. Perhaps in France where the writer/director is from, you stick with family members who are total losers, living in your little village with the one little well. Here in America, we have much more affiliation with friends and our co-workers than with any jerk relatives, even in 1970. Many families have spread across the country and hardly see each other any more.When I read the box office section, I misread the 46 thousand domestic gross as 46 million. So I do the highlight>copy>New Tab>Bookmarks>Box Office Mojo>paste>search>click, because Jeff Besos is too inconsiderate to put a link both ways even though he owns both websites. So then I see they spent 25 million and got 2 million back from sales in France. So I guess those European investors that wanted to make a killing in the American market lost almost everything. Sorry, c'est dommage.The sad thing is that if the editor or the money men deleted one scene, just one scene, this movie would be 100 times better. That scene was where the bad brother executes and entire family at that restaurant, for reasons unknown. Its awful hard to care about this sociopath jerk after that, and that scene was pretty early in the movie. With the time saved by taking that scene out, they could have put in a scene explaining how the crazy ticked-off ex husband escaped and was in pursuit of the cop brother. That would have made the ending more understandable, if no more sensible.A few news flashes for French directors. An ex-con that just got out might get mad at his ex-girlfriend when he is drunk and lonely late at night. He will not take a gun into Grand Central Station to execute the girl and her cop boyfriend. Next flash: street hoods in Brooklyn in the 1970s did not carry machine guns. Another flash: Some loser brother does not get out of prison and start killing people, robbing people, and running girls without getting his knees broken by the Italians, and Puerto Rican, and Koreans, and gosh knows how many other established criminal enterprises there were in that neighborhood.I think the director was insecure in his story and his actors, so he had to spray gratuitous drama wherever he could. This is so sad, since the actors and cinematography and music and editing were all so good. This movie showed me how little can be wrong to make a competent production into a flop.Just toning everything down would have made this a decent move. Make the bad brother a lovable rogue, not a complete sociopath. No executing his henchmen in the robbery or other absurdities. Cripes, robbers are not murderers, it is just such incoherent characterization. I kinda lost track of all the girls, forgetting who was an ex-wife or a sister, or a lover, or some random broad off the street. Less is more.And none of this love-you-hate-you-love-you-hate-you brother nonsense. Maybe make the cop brother get involved by busting brothels to make room for his brother's business, and of course, he would be in on the take. Its either that or make it a simple bad guy chased by the good cop with no family relationship, just good vs bad.Its dripping with drama, but its all cargo-cult drama. The director has never read or studied much less been in real situations in the 1970s. He has dreamed up this confabulated image based on all the other (bad) movies he has watched, so the behaviors and characters in the movie don't ring true. I think of the violence in Goodfellas, and there was the central murder of Billy Batts, and Joe Pesci shooting the kid, and him getting his just rewards in the end. But there was no willy-nilly killing sprees. Mobsters are about money, not violence. The violence happens but as a result of chasing the money. Killing a whole family? They have assets, take the restaurant like in Donnie Brasco, or any other type of hard-butt extortion. Its all about money and killing people does not get you your money back, and attracts way too much attention from law enforcement.The real pathos about this flick it that it could have been saved if they just cut out the absurd violence, and simplified the plot, and took out a few characters. They could have made back the budget in the editing room. A few re-shoots might have made it a profit-maker. What a sad sad waste.

All these talented actors, what a huge waste! Billy Crudup I like, the wonderful Marion Cotillard, the English Clive Owen, Zoe Saldana looks stunning, James Caan in a cameo role... even the interesting Dutch or Belgian newcomer Mathias Schoenaerts who was great in the recent Far from the Madding Crowd, honestly there is not a single bad actor here... simply let down by a depressing low-grade storyline about low-grade criminal life... Clive, you can do so much better than this. The French director probably thought he could do as well as an American writer with this genre but unfortunately he failed. Just write another interesting and pleasant story with decent dialogue for all these stars and I would be happy so see them all in another movie... I bought this DVD cheaply looking at the star lineup, thinking I had got a deal... no way. I should take it back for a refund... Good actors cannot achieve instant fame with a bad story and script, I am sorry to say and I was greatly disappointed

BLOOD TIES is a French attempt at those classic 70s NYC crime stories. The concept is an oldie but a goodie - two brothers on opposite sides of the law - but it never convinces. It has thriller elements - a police raid, an armoured car robbery and a car chase - but they're badly shot and derivative of better films. It splurges on the drama instead but only ends up with shouting and swearing. It doesn't help that the multi-national cast means lots of weird accents, or that the two leads are a pair of milk-sops. The only moment it comes alive is when James Caan gets angry at his sons during Thanksgiving; when he swears, you believe him. Unfortunately he's then consigned to the supporting cast again as the story heads towards its sorta-redemptive ending as one brother sacrifices himself for the other. The best 70s crime films had grit, soul and energy but this is a flaccid retread and at over two hours (half-an-hour longer than the French film it's based on) it's a real yawn.

Blood Ties (2013)Despite the strangely French roots to this movie (director, writer, production company), this is a deeply American story with many traditional, almost overworn crime and cop/robber aspects. It works overall—it's not a bad film. It's gritty and well acted, and it plays with the clichés in an honest enough way to keep them alive and compelling.Clive Owen has the biggest role, playing a con just getting out of jail. His father (James Caan) just had lung surgery and is apparently not in good health. And his brother (Billy Cudrup) offers to give him a place to live. This brother also happens to be a cop, and if there is something an ex-con learns to hate more than anything it is cops.So the story is ostensibly about the two brothers and their conflict, and about some childhood incident where the cop brother betrayed the criminal brother. It's not like this led the one to crime, but more that the cop has always been afraid of doing wrong, and maybe afraid of standing up for his brother when the chips are down.In a way this is the key to the movie—at what point do you do the right thing for society and turn in your very bad brother, your own flesh and blood? Some would say never. I'm not so sure. (The uni-bomber was finally revealed by his brother, and it probably saved some innocent lives.) But it comes down to that very deep honor, about doing right in some lofty sense, not just the letter of the law.And this is the best part of the movie. The crime and violence part of things, with all the usual taunts and gun battles and hiding out, is all well and good, but it's pretty common stuff. The interactions between the two leading men is what makes the movie stand apart, and is why you should watch it. It takes on a less mythic quality than, say, "The Godfather," which of course is also about being true to family above all else (usually). And that's good, too, the grit and realism make even the outrageous and dramatic final scene believable.