I made a big deal out of Arnold Schwarzenegger returning to the world of action movies in The Last Stand, but unfortunately, his comeback has been overshadowed by the resurrection of Sylvester Stallone's career. Much like Schwarzenegger, Stallone's theatrical success went downhill quick with flops like Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot and Judge Dredd outweighing successful movies like Demolition Man and Cliffhanger. But things started looking up again when the revivals of his beloved characters Rocky Balboa and John Rambo were met with open arms by both critics and moviegoers, and The Expendables and its sequel rode a wave of nostalgia to the top of the box office. This brings us to Stallone's latest movie, Bullet to the Head. Based on the French comic book Du Plomb Dans La Tête by writer Alexis "Matz" Nolent and artist Colin Wilson, Bullet to the Head is a fine action flick that's definitely worth the time and effort to check out.
Welcome to New Orleans, where professional hitmen Jimmy "Bobo" Bonomo (Sylvester Stallone) and Louis Blanchard (Jon Ceda) successfully kill a corrupt cop on behalf of greedy real estate developer Robert Morel (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). But things end up going sour shortly thereafter when Louis is stabbed to death by Keegan (Jason Momoa), a ruthless mercenary sent by Morel to tie up loose ends. Bobo manages to escape, swearing to avenge his partner's death.
As this is going on, Washington DC detective Taylor Kwon (Sung Kang) arrives in town following up on a case. The corrupt cop was his former partner, and despite the unwillingness of the New Orleans police to cooperate, Kwon deduces what happened and tracks down Bobo. He offers an uneasy alliance with Bobo so that they can track down those behind the deaths of their partners. And while Bobo is hesitant to have anything to do with a cop, he's forced to accept Kwon's offer if he's to have his revenge.
Much like Schwarzenegger's The Last Stand a few weeks ago, Bullet to the Head was met with lukewarm reviews and disappointing box office numbers. And both movies are further similar in that they're both flawed yet ultimately entertaining movies that I did enjoy quite a bit. Bullet to the Head is not a perfect movie, nor will anybody ever accuse it of being one. But like I said earlier, I enjoyed it enough to feel that it was well worth my time.
The movie was directed by Walter Hill, the filmmaker behind flicks like 48 Hrs. and The Warriors. Hill's guilty of a few instances of that "shaky-cam" style of filmmaking that I hate so much, but I'm thankful he used it in such a way that you can still actually follow what's happening on the screen. Maybe it's me, but a lot of modern movies leave me stuck doing mental gymnastics trying to figure out what I'm looking at during more intense scenes, so I'm grateful that Hill shot the movie in a way that made the action actually watchable.
And the movie is fun enough, but I came away with the feeling that had it not been for the involvement of Warner Bros. and Sylvester Stallone, Bullet to the Head probably would have gone direct-to-video. I'm sure it's no fault of Hill's, but the movie looks and feels like one of those low-budget B-movies you'd find in those multi-movie DVD packs in the $5 bin at Walmart. I'd almost expected it to star Dolph Lundgren and Eric Roberts instead of Stallone. And I won't say that's a bad thing or that it detracts from the movie, but I'm just saying it didn't feel quite like a movie a major Hollywood studio would have given a theatrical release.
What does hinder the movie, though, is its screenplay. I've never read the comic book the movie was based on (nor had I even heard of it before last week), but I'm sure it's nowhere near as bad as the movie's script. Written by Alessandro Camon, the script is really lacking in a number of key areas. The dialogue is trite, a lot of the characters are flat and dull, the story is a threadbare excuse to set up its action sequences, and some plot threads get unnecessarily convoluted without a satisfactory payoff. And the best Camon could come up with for the villain is a guy who wanted to tear down some slums and build upscale condos? Lex Luthor tried pulling a real estate swindle in Superman too, but at least his plan involved shooting a missile at California. The villain from Bullet to the Head doesn't even have that.
But at least some of the cast is decent enough. Some of the actors ― particularly Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Sarah Shahi ― are forgettable or don't contribute a lot to the movie. However, I thought a couple of actors were noteworthy. Christian Slater was really good in his small role as Morel's lawyer, to the point that I wish he'd been the main villain instead. I also thought Jason Momoa was okay, even though there wasn't much acting required from him. He's just playing the clichéd '80s action movie bad guy that you'd see in a movie like Cobra or Commando. Momoa isn't bad, he's just not doing anything that hasn't been done before.
And then there's Sung Kang, who I thought was fun and likable. It's unfortunate, though, that there wasn't a whole lot to his character. It's more a fault of the writing that Kang's acting, but it's hard for him to do much when the only thing he's given is occasionally calling somebody to get information about who he's looking for. The character could have been completely eliminated from the movie and it wouldn't have changed it much. Kang is still good, though, so I'll give him that.
Last but not least is our star, Sylvester Stallone. His performance is really good, as he plays the role of "stone cold hitman" effectively and believably. Granted, he's done a ton of action movies where he's played similar characters, so I'm sure it's second nature to Stallone by now. The only negative of the whole thing is that as good as Stallone and Kang are individually, they really don't have much chemistry together. For a movie that's pretty much a weird play off the "buddy cop" movie, you'd think that the two leads would have been able to play off one another in a way that would make the movie more entertaining. But we're not dealing with Riggs and Murtaugh here, and outside of one or two scenes, Stallone and Kang don't really gel together.
And that really sums up the whole movie. As good as some parts of it are, it never really gels together into a cohesive whole. Bullet to the Head isn't a bad movie, but I guess I was just expecting more from it. If we're going to keep getting these throwbacks to '80s action movies, maybe we should just get more Expendables and Rambo movies. But as far as Bullet to the Head goes, give it a rental when it hits DVD in a few months. It's at least worth a watch, maybe as a double feature with The Last Stand. It's a fun flick that I'm sure action fans will enjoy, even if it does take a few missteps here and there.
Final Rating: **½
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