Review of Bullet to the Head (2012) by Jeff B — 05 Feb 2013

"I'm gonna get her back, then they die.".

I wasn't looking much forward to watching this but I go to watch anything because i'm often surprised that I like them. 'The Last Stand' for example was an enjoyable brain-dead action flick. This however is not and tries at a more detailed plot that fails miserably - it thinks it's a smarter action film but it is not.

The plot follows 'Jimmy' (Stallone) and 'Taylor' (Sung Kang) as they try and figure out who double crossed Jimmy and killed their respective partners. It's simple at first and if it would have stayed like that i'd have thought more of it. But it doesn't and tries to seem smarter than the average action flick. There in-lies the issue it is far from that and for an action film it's very one note and instead of getting info 'Jimmy' just kills everyone - he needs to work on how getting info works. I know it's a given that it is an action flick so the story no matter how stupidly ambition shouldn't matter. But I can't shake the poor script that attempts too much off my back.

It's not just the laughably ambitious script that is the problem but also the action. It goes as follows fight - death - explosion - death and repeat. It's very uninspired considering this coming from the man that practically invented the buddy cop action genre. There's nothing memorable and it wastes what I thought was going to be a great opportunity - the fight with axes, but it falls flat.

The most irritating aspect though is the narration by 'Stallone' it adds literally nothing and is just a series of typical mind-numbingly boring attempts at a philosophical look at the current situation - the only solace is they peter out. The buddy aspect is about the best thing with a few decent back and fourths but nothing particularly funny.

I can't even recommend it to those who absolutely love buddy cop movies because everything here has been done much better in virtually every other buddy cop movie - even 'Tango and Cash' does a better job and that's a poor film. If I was to recommend either this or 'The Last Stand' to an action fan i'd have no hesitation in suggesting 'The Last Stand'. I'm afraid 'Stallone' this time you've lost.