Review of Homefront (2013) by Ewan M — 21 Dec 2013

The laugh hit of the season, this unintentionally hilarious Home-spun tough guy tale is an affront to any high-octane thriller set in a backwater town. Remember when films boasting a screenplay by Sylvester Stallone got pulses racing? No? That's because the last time that that happened the result was Rocky and the year was 1976. Since then, he's turned out more give-'em-hack (Driven, Expendables) than give-'em-Hell (reportedly, his Edgar Allan Poe bio-pic script is a loo loo). Basically, his latest premise puts a swivel-arm battle-gripped action figure with one setting through a one-pump firefight in a one horse town with a one-note villain. Worst, as realized on screen, the action plays out as a series of B-Movie fisticuff cliches that the audience can see coming from a country mile away.

In this R-rated actioner, a former DEA agent (Statham) moves his daughter to a quiet town, only to tangle with a local meth drug lord (Franco) with ties to the drug-running biker gang that the retired agent took down.

As a Bostonian trying to fit into Podunk Louisiana, Statham plays Statham, squinting and kicking people in the head while delivering a snarl that's not so much an attempted American accent as a horribly misplaced British accent. Plus, for those movie fans who thought he might look better with hair, the once and future Expendable elicits huge laughs while wearing a long mane as a cop working undercover in the Sons of Anarchy. At this point, prolific actor James Franco (who also starred in Spring Breakers and This is the End this year), should stop while he's ahead...oops, too late.

Bottom line: Call of Doody.