Bullet to the Head (2013)

Simply A Masterpiece

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

If you like action movies, you should like this one. It's a revenge/buddy movie, set in New Orleans, and the musical score really helps the viewer get in a bluesy state of mind. Stallone is excellent as the old hit man who is still in incredible shape, but is a bit worn down, not by age but by the life. Still, he's seen and done it all and it's prepared him for anything. I see no need to describe the whole movie, but suffice it to say it's easy to watch, with no jarring moments that take you out of the story. The actors, many of whom are well known, all carry their roles with ease. Well, except for the second lead, a Korean actor named Sung Kang. Originally, Thomas Jane was cast in his role as the cop who teamed with Stallone's hitman. But apparently to appease the Asian audience, he was replaced with Kang. Kang is definitely the second banana in the role, and I'm not sure they would have played it that way with Jane because Jane is a much stronger personality onscreen. Kang has all the personality and likeability of an eggplant. He's not terrible in the role, but he definitely does not have the chops to spend time onscreen jousting with Stallone. Luckily, that one weakness in the film does not spoil the experience. Bullet to the Head is very watchable and enjoyable for what it is- an old-fashioned get even by shooting up the bad (or the worse) guys type of movie.

Bullet to the Head (2012) ** (out of 4)James Bonomo (Sylvester Stallone) is a professional hitman who pulls a job with his partner. Later that night he is attacked and his partner is killed so he teams up with a Detective (Sung Kang) to find out who placed the hit on him.Walter Hill's BULLET TO THE HEAD just seems very old. I say that because Hill has been working this genre for decades and we all know that the same is true for Stallone. The two men have created some of the best actions movies out there but sadly them teaming up did nothing because the film itself is just rather lousy and feels as if both are just going through the motions.To say I was disappointed in this film would be an understatement. As I said, both Hill and Stallone have done so many good things that one would have hoped that by teaming up we'd get some sort of fun action picture but we don't. There are several issues with the film but the biggest thing is the fact that there's really nothing new here.We've seen this story done countless times before and much better. We've seen these type of action scenes before and much better. There's absolutely no chemistry between Stallone and Kang, which really kills the attempt at a buddy picture and of course we've seen that before. In fact, I thought Kang was incredibly dull here and brought nothing to the picture. Christian Slater has a thankless role but Sarah Shahi and Jason Momoa at least bring a little life.BULLET TO THE HEAD didn't even seem like a theatrical film as it felt like a direct-to-video release. The movie isn't awful by any stretch of the imagination but there's just very little life here and even less entertainment. It seems like an elderly movie trying to fit in on a new crowd and it just doesn't work.

This film belongs to the sub-genre that Stallone has been building for himself since he stopped being recognized as a true modern action hero. I would argue that this phase started in the mid-90's, "Assassins" being a clear example of this self-reference to the action Sly getting older and replaced by someone "younger".What these films include, and this one is no exception, are all sorts of self-reference to Stallone's character and style, usually spoken out through jokes. In this film the reflexive jokes go around two things:-the "my way or no way" jokes, where Kwon tries to do things the new way, and the old Sly proves that his way is still the best one; in the end we get an old-fashioned one on one fight, resembling Cobra's finale;-the technology which was not such a big part of the "old" action films, so Kwon has to explain how much you can have "inside" a cellphone, they trace Slater's character through a phone GPS, etc. This thread of jokes is the one first tried, to my memory, on the 4th Die Hard, where Willis played the same part as Sly does here.Of all the references to Stallone's old self vs the new one, the sweetest here is the mug shot sequence, when we see his face evolving through the years and recognize all the old characters, from Rocky to Demolition Man, and to the older version of Rambo. Now that Rocky is already 40 years old, Stallone's face is beginning to have an aura of nostalgia in it. Well, if Cahiers du Cinéma made an author out of Verhoeven, they sure can make the same to Stallone some day.I enjoy Stallone at his best, and recognize this: he built a character and a style tailored to his limitations as an actor, and suited to his qualities as a muscled action figure and a certain charisma of his persona. He inhabited this persona for as long as it was marketable, and than turned it around, and ironically started poking fun at it.He reinvented a new character, out of the suddenly empty old one. The Expendables franchise is surely the most over the top version of this (and does it for Stallone and all the other old dudes), but this small film does it better, because it has a tight script, predictable but believable within the genre limits. And it has a director who knows something about style, is himself a sort of old- fashioned guy, and understands what breathes life into this kind of film: it's not about the fights, those are 4-5min sequences between mood/character building sequences. Cinematography helps, a lot.Everyone here involved has done better elsewhere. But if you know where all of them came from and what they did, you will enjoy this... And we have New Orleans, that's never a bad thing.

New Orleans. Corrupt cops on the payroll of this sleazy businessman who wants to flatten ghetto buildings and build condominiums. Baptiste aligns himself with plenty of crooked scum and then when they appear to no longer be in his best interest, they're iced. So you have Stallone's long-term con/hit-man, Jimmy, who does a job for one of Baptiste's many "handlers", but he loses his partner thanks to a menacing ex-militant named Keegan (played by steely-eyed Jason Mamoa, quite convincing as a brooding psychotic with a serpentine smile). Keegan seems more interested in killing than necessarily being paid for his hit-jobs. Baptiste also has a corrupt lawyer (played by a wasted Christian Slater) who has a flashdrive containing all the man's illegal activities. Soon Jimmy must join forces reluctantly (and vice versa) with a DC detective, Kwon (Sung Kang). Kwon has a key link to DC who filters plenty of information his way, and this does assist Jimmy in his conquest to kill Keegan and get paid what was owed to him for the assassination of a coke-snorting bastard disgraced cop. Oh, yeah, Jimmy has a tattoo-artist daughter (Sarah Shahi) soon kidnapped (obviously) by Keegan and Baptiste to be used as leverage. Well, the film delivers what the title promises…lots of bullets in heads. Walter Hill knows how to shoot gunfights and action, but Bullet in the Head is beneath him in terms of his marvelous resume as a director. This is the kind of movie you'd expect to find cheap in those five buck sets loaded with less-than-spectacular actioners similar in type. Nothing at all stands out about this film that would indicate it has staying power to remain in your mind an hour after you watch it. Stallone does get to utter a John Wayne line, "That'll be the day," when Kwon tells him if he continues to "be bad" he'll come after him. Mamoa is the classic B-movie action mercenary. His ax fight with Stallone and subsequent fail due to the partner's switchblade (the partner of Stallone murdered by Mamoa; this act setting off the rest of the movie) are staples the action genre never fails to capitalize on in storytelling…the hero (or, this case, anti-hero) sees an objective in his sights, fueled by the captivity of his daughter and murder of six-year partner, and that is the muscled heavy daring him to fight. Kwon basically looks cool and plays it straight, allowing Stallone to dominate the proceedings as is customary in these movies. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje is fun as the morally destitute, crippled businessman with a devil-may-care attitude towards anyone that is of little use to him or his rise in power. Stallone has done a hell of a lot better than this; even the likes of Lock-up or even Avenging Angelo are as good as this film. You can just mark this off as a minuscule example of Hill's worst. This still is loaded with bullets destroying bodies, so there's at least that. Stallone holds this disgruntled pose and his delivery is quite John Wayne if the Duke was filled with disgust.