Gina Carano is a reasonably appealing MMA fighter who has crossed over to acting. In the Blood sees her play a newlywed who goes to a Caribbean island for a honeymoon, when her husband is involved in a (silly, contrived as the safety line suddenly disappears) zip line accident he disappears on the way to the hospital. Carano searches all over for him as the police disbelieve her and so does her husband's family.

The film has elements of Taken, there is some nice footage as Carano and her husband partake in activities on honeymoon such as sailing, there are cameo appearance from some known actors such as Luis Guzman and Treat Williams.

However the film is a bit of a stinker, Carano does well looking anxious and frustrated searching for her husband but the plot is all over the place. The hospital must be corrupt as they deny ever seeing her husband but the ambulance was on its way there, the police do not seem too forceful investigating making them and look dodgy themselves. The husband's big shot family instead of calling in some private investigators blame Carano and then promptly disappear.

The climax drags out when it should had ended in a hospital shootout but it just highlights the flaws in the script.

Carano who is good in her action scenes needs to be better served if she is going to hit the big time in action films. This is a straight to DVD 'B' film and a poor one.

IN THE BLOOD is an action vehicle for flavour-of-the-month martial arts star Gina Carano, the mixed martial arts fighter who Steven Soderbergh put into a film with HAYWIRE. This one was shot in Puerto Rico and is a gender twist on your usual low budget fight flick, with Carano's husband disappearing during their holiday in the Caribbean and our starlet swearing vengeance on those responsible.

The plot is very derivative stuff indeed but I didn't find this too much of a problem considering that's the norm for the genre. Carano's acting also leaves something to be desired; she's not great at emotion and appears to be on autopilot at other times. However, in the fight scenes she's very convincing, snappy and violent, and that's what counts.

The story manages to shoehorn in regular action usually involving hand-to-hand combat with various thugs and goons and it's all well choreographed and realistic; just hits to take foes down rather than any fancy stuff. The ending is a bit underwhelming but I can go with that. The supporting cast includes minor parts for Danny Trejo, Stephen Lang, and Treat Williams, and a nice supporting turn for Luis Guzman as a corrupt cop.

Gina is one rare girl who manages to look cute and savage at the same time. And given the recent debacle she has managed to stay strong and true to her nature. And she really is one strong woman not like the airy heads who think they are strong just because some movie portrays them to be. Wishing her luck and looking forward to more of her movies.