Homefront
Director: Gary Fleder
Writer: Sylvester Stallone
Based on: Chuck Logan‘s novel
Cast: Jason Statham, James Franco, Izabela Vidovic, Kate Bosworth, Marcus Hester, Clancy Brown, Winona Ryder, Omar Benson Miller, Rachelle Lefevre, Frank Grillo, Austin Craig

Plot:
Phil Broker (Jason Statham) worked undercover with a biker gang for years but after the case was closed – and rather unfortunately – he and his daughter Maddy (Izabela Vidovic) moved to a small town to get away from it all and to disappear. But then he gets into the crosshairs of the local gangster Gator Bodine (James Franco) and his past quickly catches up with him.

Homefront tookt itself very seriously. Way too seriously for the kind of film it is. There are some glimpses at a better film underneath the rubble, but the result is generally rather meh.

Homefront could have gone two ways: it could have aimed for full-camp (which was the direction James Franco took and which he did very well – it just didn’t fit the rest of the film) or it could have actually gone for thoughtful and dark. And I think they tried to hit the latter, but fell very short of their mark.

Except for three things that is: one, the soundtrack was wonderful; two, they found the most beautiful swamp and filmed it beautifully; and three, Austin Craig and his character Teddy – not only was his acting remarkable, but Teddy was a fully realized character with motivation and development – which is more than you can say for any of the other characters. Despite the fact that Teddy is in about 5 scenes altogether and has 5 minutes screen time max.

But apart from those glimpses of the film this could have been (which makes me think that the novel this is based on might be worth reading), there is nothing much to recommend the movie we got. The fight scenes aren’t badly choreographed, but usually the camera doesn’t let you see much of them. The characters’ motivations are either not shown at all or bludgeoned into the dialogue (apart from Teddy). The plot is predictable.

If the movie had a smidge of self-irony (but with a script by Stallone that’s impossible, I guess), it could have been pure comedy gold – the fact alone that Statham doesn’t even try to put on an American accent anymore amused me a bit. But since it is serious about everything it does, it becomes drudgery.

Summarizing: Nah. But keep your eyes peeled for Austin Craig.