Homefront is a crowd-pleaser, but is it any good?

Jason Statham has made a career of playing suave but lethal killing machines, especially in the Transporter series of films. He’s gone gritty as well (Death Race), and his success has allowed him to branch out into caper films (The Italian Job) and, believe it or not, animated family films (Gnomeo and Juliet). Fans were thrilled by his surprise appearance at the end of Fast & Furious 6 setting him up to appear in the next film, and he’ll be returning to the Expendables franchise as well. Until then, Statham takes a stab at being a family man … who also happens to be a lethal killing machine.

In Homefront, Statham stars as Phil Broker, an undercover cop who had infiltrated a biker/drug gang set to distribute some freshly cooked meth to the masses. The bust goes horribly wrong as the SWAT team gets a little over-enthusiastic during the raid, and the gang leader’s son is shot something like 47 times while Broker’s cover is blown. After the titles, Broker and his adorable daughter and their kitten move to bayou country (the movie was shot in Shreveport, LA) to live a quiet life out of the line of fire. Or is Broker really there on another undercover job? Or does Broker just by chance happen to move to a town with a huge meth operation underway and gets drawn into the cop life again? That much was never made clear.

Whatever the reason for Broker’s new location — and after the bad bust and a blown cover, you’d think he’d go somewhere out of the way and under a different name — he’s drawn into a feud when his daughter defends herself against a school bully and the tweaked out mom asks her meth lord brother to go out and give the guy a scare. It’s then that the brother, Gator (James Franco), discovers Broker’s identity after finding some boxes of files of his past cases (and why would Broker even be carting this stuff around if he wasn’t still on the clock?) and decides to enlist his girlfriend (played by Winona Ryder) to give Broker to the imprisoned biker dad as a gift in exchange for exclusive, statewide distribution rights for his meth. What could possibly go wrong?

Homefront, written by Sylvester Stallone, has almost the same plot as Stallone’s Bullet to the Head (so I’ve been told). There’s really nothing new here, even though it looks good and has a lot of action and some fairly good performances. It’s nice seeing a softer side of Statham as he interacts with the young daughter and sees the first sparks of a possible relationship with the school’s psychologist. But, when pressed into action, he can still kick everyone’s ass with both hands tied behind his back. Really. He kicks the asses of three of Gator’s henchmen with his hands tied behind his back. If you’re a fan of Statham (and he never bothers to cover his accent), then you really won’t be disappointed.

The other big names in the cast actually turn in some good work with stereotypical characters. Franco seems to be at his best when he’s playing bad. He never really had the charm or charisma to play the Wizard of Oz, but he really nails the put-upon, wannabe drug kingpin who tries to lay low and make a living (with the help of the town’s sheriff who turns a blind eye in exchange for information on low-level criminals), but also has to deal with his drug addict sister who launches a vendetta on anyone who embarrasses her family. The sister is played by Kate Bosworth and you would never believe that this is the same woman who played Lois Lane in Superman Returns or hit the waves in Blue Crush. Much has been made in the tabloids about her scary-skinny appearance, which is disturbing, but it fits the role well (maybe she’s a method actor like Matthew McConaughey and Christian Bale) and she really makes an impression with her short screen time. It was also great to see Ryder back on the big screen, even if it is a minor supporting role. As Gator’s sort-of girlfriend Sheryl, she is constantly on edge, looking frantic and desperate as she gets drawn deeper into Gator’s plan to take down Broker.

The rest of the bad guys, led by Frank Grillo, are pretty interchangeable and barely register, mostly because the film’s climactic battle takes place at night. The combination of darkness and extremely close camera angles makes the hand-to-hand combat between Broker and the killers a real jumble. It’s exciting to see Broker take down some bad guys in broad daylight so you can actually see him in action, so the nighttime setting for the biggest battle is disappointing. I mentioned a kitten earlier, and it was important to mention because Broker and his daughter make such a big deal out of the pet early in the film leading one to believe that the poor creature will be put in harms way. One thing I can’t stomach is a film depicting an animal as an innocent victim (especially when the pet in question looks exactly like my own kitten!). Gator does kidnap the kitten, but I am happy to report that it appears to survive to the end. There were more people in my group concerned about that cat than they were the humans!

So the question remains: is Homefront a “good” movie? It’s well made, well acted, has some great action, but the story is just a bit too clichéd (and the romance subplot — as well as the romantic interest — just vanishes after the daughter’s birthday party). To Stallone’s credit, he does manage to write some decent dialog that doesn’t leave you rolling your eyes every time someone opens their mouth. I’m just confused by the title and the promotional artwork which wraps Statham in an American flag. It gives off a real military vibe that doesn’t fit the tone, or the narrative, of the movie but that’s neither here not there. Homefront is really just a popcorn vendetta/action flick that aims to entertain and get you cheering for the good guy … and on that point it is a complete success.