Homefront (2013)

Too much of everything

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

HomefrontWhere have all the heroes gone? Didn't Bonnie Tyler sing something about that? In a world where today's action heroes are a bit limp it's nice to see that at least Jason Statham can compare to the action heroes of the 80's This is probably why Sylvester Stallone chose Statham to be his right hand man in The Expendables.Speaking of Mr Stallone this movie is a product from his very own pen. Homefront is based on the novel by Chuck Logan and adapted for screen by Rocky himself. Originally a vehicle for Sly, I believe the choice of putting Statham in the lead role was a very wise one indeed. Don't get me wrong Stallone would have done a good job but Statham seems more believable in this role.Home front focus's on a retired DEA agent who resides in a small backwater town. When he and his child fall foul of the local Rednecks Phil Broker (Statham) must fight for their safety.Homefront is a simple movie. One that harks back to the action flicks of the 70's and 80's. With a impressive cast including James Franco. Winona Ryder, Kate Bosworth and Clancy Brown, this film should be sure to please. In most parts it does. Take aside the finale which does venture into the town of OTT, this is a decent action drama. I say drama. Jason Statham gets to flex his acting muscles a little more than usual but I don't think he'll be troubling Daniel Day Lewis any time soon.The biggest problem with Homefront is that Director Gary Fleder doesn't allow Statham to do what he's best at. Kick ass convincingly! Once again we are treated to Shaky cam syndrome. There really is no need. Jason Statham is one of the best action/ martial arts stars working today. Why not step the camera back a bit and let the audience see what's going on. This is a common gripe of mine with action movies of today. It's ok if you have a star that isn't very good in the ass kickery department but Statham is a living legend. James Franco excels in a rare villainous role as does Kate Boswell as his junkie sister. I'm sure she must have lost weight for the role as she's painfully thin here. With the likes of Winona Ryder and Frank Grillo under utilised it's up to good old Statham to carry the show. Homefront is a worthy way to spend 1hr 40mins but with such a short runtime certain characters and sub-plots don't get fleshed out. The romance between Broker and school teacher Susan never has time to blossom. I kind of get the feeling that much of the character development was left on the cutting room floor. Sad really as this could have allowed Homefront to be much more than just another throw away action flick.

Good guy v many bad guys in a movie all have a similar ending. In saying that, this was not a bad movie and the actors were well cast.

A former DEA agent moves his family to a quiet town, where he soon tangles with a local meth drug-lord. I got to see Homefront 3 years ago in a Theater later on as the years passed i got the DVD and let me tell ya this is one of Jason Statham's best movies next to Transporter 1 + 2 and The Expendables Trilogy. The reason why i loved this movie is because of 4 reasons Stallone wrote the script, Statham kicks butt, Great Father + Daughter relationship and the cast is pretty cool the best job in the cast except Statham for me was Frank Grillo his fight scene with Broker was pretty cool. Now the problems with the film for me was definitely James Franco the dude just wasn't scary and he just felt like he was in control when he had the gun when Jason grabbed him and kicked the crap out of him the film kinda ended quickly there when the enemy just isn't that great the movie just falls apart and Winona Ryder's character is very limited. Other than that with those 2 problems i mentioned this is still a pretty cool action movie. Happy 49th Birthday Jason Statham!!!

Homefront truly is boosted higher by good performances by the cast. Winona Ryder really did a great job as the skanky bad girl Sheryl, she and James Franco had a really good chemistry and kinda bad guy dynamic going throughout the film. As for Jason Statham, he was perfect for his starring role, I mean could NOT have picked a better action star to lead this movie! He is sexy, rugged, tough as friggin nails, and overall a real badass, but a badass with a good big heart. Him and his daughter really had great father/daughter chemistry here, you could tell that they really had a great relationship and loved and cared about one another, which was needed for a movie like this one. Kate Bosworth is pretty darn good as well, she is almost unrecognizable here, Redneck trailer trash, anyways, she plays a well written character well here. Now as for the movie itself as a whole, it's kinda average action movie fare, nothing to distinguish it from the rest in this genre. The action and shooting sequences are pretty run of the mill, nothing all too special to see unfortunately. The plot has some nice attachments to it, like the father daughter relationship/connection that I mentioned before. Homefront tries it's hardest to be this edgy awesome new action film, but it did not accomplish that goal. It's just too average to be called awesome or even all that edgy. I mean yah there is time of crude language because of the degenerate characters, and yes, it has some rough violence to some scenes, but that still doesn't make it all that edgy. But hey, it's not a total loss, good performances all around! 6/10 for Homefront.