A Sheriff's Deputy in a small rural town is tasked with guarding a crime scene, and the dead body lying in the middle of it. But when the Deputy somehow manages to lose said body, he inadvertently uncovers a criminal conspiracy as he attempts to get it back. Much like it's central character, The Deputy  - which is based on the book by Victor Gischler - can be a bit slow and meandering, as we follow Deputy Toby (Duke Nicholson) on his roundabout journey to find the body that has inexplicably wandered off from the crime scene he was charged with guarding. Yet it also makes for somewhat compelling viewing as our plodding hero eventually discovers there is something ugly going on in this little town. Slowly, that odd pace begins to make sense. Afterall, this is Toby's journey, and all throughout we are with him as he goes about - in his own unique way - trying to figure out what is going on. Nicholson is the perfect embodiment of 'failure to launch' as he emerges from t...

Mel Gibson is back on the silver screen in Jean-Francois Richet's Blood Father. Gibson plays John Link, an ex-con who must re-visit some of his old ways in order to protect his estranged teenage daughter Lydia (Erin Moriarty) from the drug dealers that are trying to kill her. William H. Macy co-stars as Kirby; Link's friend and AA sponsor. Gibson may be trying to win back his fans by returning to the type of movie he's famous for. Blood Father even begins with his character speaking at an AA meeting about all the bad things he's done in his life and how he can never take it all back. It feels like Gibson is trying to make amends as much as Link is, probably a deliberate move. Being a child of the 80's I've grown up watching Gibson in classics like Lethal Weapon, Mad Max, Maverick, Tequila Sunrise, Payback, and he's delivered brilliant performances in all of them. Despite the fact that he has proven to be an arsehole (and then some) in his persona...