Two brothers, a criminal and a cop, pass the time by challenging each other. Remake of the French thriller "Liens de sang".

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Chris (Clive Owen) has just been released from prison. Frank (Billy Crudup), his cop brother, helps him by giving him a place to stay, finding him a job and trying to get him back with his wife Monica (Marion Cotillard). Chris tries to readjust to society, but is met only by distrust and contempt. To get money and start fresh with Natalie (Mila Kunis), a beautiful cashier he’s fallen for, he falls back into the criminal life by agreeing to carry out a hit. Frank, meanwhile, takes up with Vanessa (Zoe Saldana), who’s tied to Antony, a dangerous criminal whom he helped get locked up. At each meeting, the relationship between the two brother turns around their father, who clearly prefers Chris over Frank. Frank finally loses his patience and decides to drop his hopeless brother. Will he really be able do that?

At the beginning, it’s hard to find one’s way around Guillaume Canet’s movie, a remake of Liens du Sang, in which he starred as the cop brother alongside François Cluzet. Violence, fistfights, spurting blood, are the highlights of this US version, while the lengthy scenes in between bore the audience to tears. Then the action finally starts with brother against brother, but it’s already clear from the title that things will never get too serious. Despite good casting, there’s no real suspense.