Homefront

Cast of Characters:

Phil Broker - Jason Statham

Morgan "Gator" Bodine - James Franco

Sheryl Gott - Winona Ryder

Cassie Klum - Kate Bosworth

Susan Hatch - Rachelle Lefevre

Cyrus Hanks - Frank Grillo

Sheriff Keith Rodriguez - Clancy Brown

Maddy Broker - Izabela Vidovic

Director - Gary Fleder

Screenplay - Sylvester Stallone

Based on the novel Homefront by Chuck Logan

Rated R for strong violence, pervasive language, drug content and brief sexuality

      Jason Statham is back to kicking everyone's ass with Kate Bosworth, Frank Grillo and Academy Award nominees Winona Ryder and James Franco in Homefront. Think Taken meets Breaking Bad meets Lizard Lick Towing meets Duck Dynasty.

      Phil Broker (Jason Statham) is a widowed, ex-undercover DEA Agent who has now moved down south with his daughter Maddy (Izabela Vidovic). It's a small, quaint town, almost too quaint. That means we're gonna get that one law enforcement official (Clancy Brown) that seems to be the only one on duty throughout the entire film, the one attractive local (Rachelle Lefevre) Statham takes a liking too (much to his daughter's pleasure), and of course, the number of yokels that don't take too kindly to Statham being all up in their neck of the woods.

      Following a school playground skirmish between Maddy and one of the kid bullies, Broker finds himself in deep when the kid's mother, Cassie Klum (Kate Bosworth), asks her meth making brother Morgan "Gator" Bodine (James Franco) and his white-trash girlfriend Sheryl Gott (Winona Ryder) to scare Statham and his little girl off. As Seinfeld would say, "Well... good luck with aaaaall that."

      So much for this week of film batting 1.000 for me. There's really not much to expect here. It comes off as a film you would've seen back in the 80's and 90's. Knowing that Sly Stallone himself wrote the script, that makes sense. I can't knock Sly too hard. The man did write Rocky... but he also wrote Staying Alive, Rhinestone, Cobra, Over the Top, Rocky III, Rocky IV, Rocky V, and Driven. The problem here is that he takes the material too seriously. Yeah, I know, you can't make light of child abduction, but as the storyline progresses, it just gets more and more ridiculous. Gary Fleder hasn't had the illustrious career all directors dream of having (he did direct Don't Say a Word which I enjoyed), but he does his best at putting together a well-made action film with some effective editing. Although there was an unnecessary sex scene between Franco and Ryder that literally looked like it was photoshop, copy and pasted into the film.  Like I said, it's a predictable, you get what you pay for film. The only surprise here are a few of the casting choices. When I first saw the trailer in theaters, they concealed the bad guy's face until Bosworth walks up to ask him for a favor. That's when they revealed him - wait for it... wait for it! Oh, hey, look, it's a meth-head James Franco as not Gator Bodine, but "Gaaaturrrr Bodiiiine!" and his shit eating grin (the theater broke out into snickers when they finally showed him during the trailer). Franco's a fantastic actor and considering he's more known for his "artsy-fartsy" persona, you can understand why he'd wanna take a break, stretch outside his comfort zone and sink his teeth into a greasy, white-trash part like this. The problem is he's not really all that intimidating and you're trying to pair him (and Ryder too) up against Jason Statham, who next to Chuck Norris, is the last guy I'd ever wanna criticize and believe me, I'm doing my best to tread lightly here. Seriously, a Statham vs. Franco and Ryder fight would last probably three seconds and that's if Mr. Statham was being generous. It's just not a believable conflict and even with half a functioning brain you'd still know full well that Statham could roundhouse kick Franco and Ryder into the next century like it's a snap of the finger. It was great to see Ryder back onscreen again though. Remember when she was big back in the late 80's to 90's? Yeah, I blame Saks. Who is believable and works terrifically here is Kate Bosworth as Franco's skin-and-bones, crack smoking sister. She's actually fantastic and I've never really been much a fan of hers (She still has a long, long, long way to go before I forgive her for her awful take on Lois Lane in the stinker Superman Returns), but it's a believable performance that makes me wonder if the filmmakers really had her smoking crack. Hey, method acting works. Just ask Daniel Day-Lewis.

      There's not much to say here. It's not like I was expecting Oscar gold and was absolutely let down. Statham is a great actor and has done some great films before, but it's all relative to my past beef with McConaughey. With him you had a great actor wasting his talent on dopey chick flicks, and with Statham, after you watch films like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, and The Bank Job, you're also left wondering why he resorts to doing harmless, yet still dopey films like these. While he certainly has a lot of charisma and works really well with newcomer Izabela Vidovic, it's still just another textbook character out of the Statham playbook that we've seen him do time and time again. It's not a horrible film, so I won't be scratching my head in confusion if you rent it. Just go into it expecting exactly what it is and you'll be fine. I give Homefront a C (★★½).

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