Homefront (15.)
Directed by Gary Fleyder.
Starring Jason Statham, James Franco, Winona Ryder, Kate Bosworth, Rachelle Lefevre and Clancy Brown. 100 mins.
Does James Franco ever go home? Since 2010 he has appeared in 22 feature films, directed 14 films including shorts and documentaries, guest starred in a daytime soap, made an album with his band, done some teaching and painting, exhibited his art and has adapted or performed the work of William Faulkner, Cormac MacCarthy and Allen Ginsberg. Now he is offering his skills to the words of Sylvester Stallone, playing the baddy in a thick-headed, soulless Jason Statham action flick.
I don’t mean to set myself up as anything special here: I’m not averse to seeing Statham bringing down some righteous retribution on some wrong-uns. But Homefront brings kids into it – And You Don’t Bring Kids Into It. The film opens with a police raid on a biker gang’s meth bar. Jason is the undercover cop (obviously, he’s got hair.) It all ends up with the gang leader’s son being killed and him swearing vengeance on Statham, and his whole family.
Not to worry, it was probably all hot air said in the heat of the moment. Anyway, Statham wouldn’t be fool enough to breed, would he? The very next scene is his daughter in a school playground getting into a fight with a tubby lad who just happens to be the off spring of the sister (Bosworth) of the local meth dealer (Franco.) and you know that in just under an hour and half she will be running for her life through woodland being chased by crazed biker folk. Now where’s the fun in that?
The sense of dread though is muted by Statham’s pugilistic invulnerability – whoever comes up against him gets slapped back down with the minimum of fuss, so although we know that Stallone’s script will insist on putting the little girl in harm’s way, there will only be the merest pretence of her being at any real risk. Indeed, Statham’s so good at fighting that the action scenes become rather dull and the film doesn’t give him anything else to do but growl a series of weak one liner. Bosworth though attacks her role as a meth addict as if somebody was expecting some proper acting to be done, which does make her seem convincingly pathetic. The film is a shambles really, wandering around looking lost, wondering why there is no video for it to go straight to.
Directed by Gary Fleyder.
Starring Jason Statham, James Franco, Winona Ryder, Kate Bosworth, Rachelle Lefevre and Clancy Brown. 100 mins.
Does James Franco ever go home? Since 2010 he has appeared in 22 feature films, directed 14 films including shorts and documentaries, guest starred in a daytime soap, made an album with his band, done some teaching and painting, exhibited his art and has adapted or performed the work of William Faulkner, Cormac MacCarthy and Allen Ginsberg. Now he is offering his skills to the words of Sylvester Stallone, playing the baddy in a thick-headed, soulless Jason Statham action flick.
I don’t mean to set myself up as anything special here: I’m not averse to seeing Statham bringing down some righteous retribution on some wrong-uns. But Homefront brings kids into it – And You Don’t Bring Kids Into It. The film opens with a police raid on a biker gang’s meth bar. Jason is the undercover cop (obviously, he’s got hair.) It all ends up with the gang leader’s son being killed and him swearing vengeance on Statham, and his whole family.
Not to worry, it was probably all hot air said in the heat of the moment. Anyway, Statham wouldn’t be fool enough to breed, would he? The very next scene is his daughter in a school playground getting into a fight with a tubby lad who just happens to be the off spring of the sister (Bosworth) of the local meth dealer (Franco.) and you know that in just under an hour and half she will be running for her life through woodland being chased by crazed biker folk. Now where’s the fun in that?
The sense of dread though is muted by Statham’s pugilistic invulnerability – whoever comes up against him gets slapped back down with the minimum of fuss, so although we know that Stallone’s script will insist on putting the little girl in harm’s way, there will only be the merest pretence of her being at any real risk. Indeed, Statham’s so good at fighting that the action scenes become rather dull and the film doesn’t give him anything else to do but growl a series of weak one liner. Bosworth though attacks her role as a meth addict as if somebody was expecting some proper acting to be done, which does make her seem convincingly pathetic. The film is a shambles really, wandering around looking lost, wondering why there is no video for it to go straight to.
