Review of Bullet to the Head (2012) by Jakir A — 07 Jul 2013

What's Bullet To The Head? It's a movie starring Sylvestor Stallone that is miraculously not from the 90's and has Sly shooting people in the face. Really it is. Maybe you don't expect much of anything from a Stallone movie and normally I don't, but Stallone movies normally don't have Walter Hill listed as the director.

The same Walter Hill who has directed action classics like Hard Times, The Long Riders, The Warriors, 48 Hrs., Southern Comfort, Wild and episodes of HBO's amazing series Deadwood. His are action films with real subtext to chew on.

But watching Bullet To The Head and you'd never guess Hill had anything to do with it. It's all Stallone's show, which accounts for why its so deadbrained. Stallone is James Bonomo aka Jimmy Bobo, a hitman who just loathes cops.

But then Bobo has to team up with Det. Taylor Kwon (Sung Kang) who's itching to bring justice to some corrupt cops in New Orleans. There are guns. They get used. There are Stallone one-liners. And thats it.

I can't fault 66-year-old Stallone for wanting to bring back the action goods, but he can at least get better vehicles. This one is straining for a purpose. Right before a major action scene with a brute of a mercenary named Keegan (Jason Momoa), Keegan attempts to give the movie such a purpose, but Bobo's more interested in fists.

'Are we gonna fight,' he says, 'or do you plan on boring me to death.' You can guess what happens from there. Stallone pandering to the lowest common denominator is nothing new, but Walter Hill.

That's just tragic.