Homefront

Directed by Gary Fleder and written by Sylvester Stallone (!), Homefront details the chaos that ensues after former DEA agent Phil Broker (Jason Statham) incurs the wrath of a low-level drug dealer (James Franco’s Gator). There’s little doubt that Homefront opens with a great deal of potential, as Fleder kicks the proceedings off with an exciting (and impressively violent) sequence that seems to promise an old-school actioner – with the filmmaker’s lamentable use of shaky camerawork initially standing as the only real obstacle to the movie’s wholehearted success. (It’s difficult to recall a more needless instance of this absolutely pointless device being employed in recent history.) The strength of Statham’s performance, coupled with a refreshingly lack of computer-generated blood effects, goes a long way towards compensating for the less-than-eventful nature of Stallone’s screenplay, and although the movie has been peppered with an handful of exciting action beats, Homefront suffers from a midsection that’s far too deliberately paced to completely sustain the viewer’s interest – as the narrative is increasingly dominated by scenes wherein various characters plot and scheme their next move. The less-than-engrossing atmosphere inevitably wreaks havoc on the film’s momentum, and it’s clear, as a result, that the climax doesn’t fare nearly as well as one might’ve hoped – with Fleder’s continued use of jittery cinematography certainly diminishing the effectiveness of this stretch. Homefront‘s extremely mild success, then, is due almost entirely to Statham’s typically engaging work and the inclusion of a few stirring sequences, although it’s ultimately obvious that the film could (and should) have been so much better.

**1/2 out of ****