You know that game you played as a kid, on the school playground where you see how long you can hang upside from the jungle gym. You think you were pretty tough for being able to last a couple minutes or more doing that? WELL YOU AREN’T JACK SHIT! Because in Blood Rush (A.K.A. Flipped), directed by Harris Demel and written by Rob Greenberg and Demel, we follow the harrowing experiences of super model Nicole Diamond (Stella Maeve) who has had an auto accident with her boyfriend rapper Scotty Dee (Evan Taubenfeld) out in the boonies. Nicole’s legs are trapped, Scotty Dee is DOA and Nicole is left dialing blind on her cell phone trying to raise help as she hangs upside down in her crashed vehicle. Be careful who you randomly call while your dick is swinging in the wind my friends…it just might get cut off.
I am going to start off this review with a minor spoiler. If you don’t know this before watching the movie you may scream a lot of ‘WHY THE FUCK DO YOU NOT CALL 911!!!!!’ at the TV just like I did until the reason was explained a little bit further into the film. So, with that said and the fact I don’t want you to turn off the movie by what will seem like a totally dumbass plot hole, the reason Nicole doesn’t do this is that some of her keys on her phone are stuck and she can only use certain ones to make calls and there seems to be an issue with her vehicles voice activated device as well in the car.
So with that out of the way let’s flip, Blood Rush like a sloppy hamburger from your favorite burger joint and see what this greasy paddy has to offer.
I’m not going to say Blood Rush re-invents thrillers but it does offer a really engaging story relating what can happen to a person who is trapped in such a desperate situation and who they are willing to deal with for help in such a dilemma. It also shows how a person, when faced with their death and a possible turning point in their life, will deal with certain unpleasant truths.
As Nicole desperately tries to call for help, she blind dials numbers on her phone until she reaches a stranger named Casey, voiced by Michael Madsen, who begins to try and help Nicole by giving her advice on what to do to make sure her legs keep their circulation flowing and so on. As the movie plays out however, Casey begins to psychologically abuse Nicole and makes her confront certain things about herself whether she wants to or not. Casey’s character was interesting to me in the fact that, while yes he torments Nicole he also raises some interesting and very valid points to her about her life and the choices she had made. While his methods are wrong his points usually were not.
The Casey character and his arguments leveled at Nicole are the hooks of the film that will keep a viewer watching and also asking themselves what actions are justifiable to help make a person see their mistakes.
The one issue I had with Blood Rush was this: the ending and how Casey was revealed. I think the movie would have been more impactful and would have REALLY driven home the message of ‘Do the ends really justify means even if they were beneficial?’ idea better if the Casey character was who we are led to believe he is at the start of the film.
Other than that, Blood Rush is a pretty solid THRILLER film…not horror but a good thriller. Watch it with a girlfriend or boyfriend alone at night and I think you both will enjoy it and have a good time discussing the overall message of the movie.
Blood Rush 
(3.5 / 5)
