Movie Review – ‘BULLET TO THE HEAD’

I’ve really become impressed with Stallone’s resurgence in recent years.  While not exactly known for his acting skills, his performance in Rocky and First Blood are actually fantastic.  His breakdown at the end of First Blood on the radio with Trautman is a scene that breaks my heart every time I see it.  Somewhere along his career he really seemed to stop trying, and he’s downright embarrassing  in some of the late 90’s/early 00’s material.  But now he’s a different actor altogether; Stallone has become a natural.  The strongest point of Bullet to the Head is Stallone being himself.  He’s having fun AND he’s being real; this is the Stallone I’ve been waiting to see emerge.  Wish this could have been a better vehicle to showcase it.  This is an adaptation of the French graphic novel Du plomb dans la tete by Alexis Nolent, and while I haven’t given that a look yet, I can almost guarantee that the term “loose” is all over the word adaptation.

Stallone plays James Bonomo aka. Jimmy Bobo, a whiskey bottle carrying hitman in New Orleans who’s looking for a little payback for the death of his partner.  Sung Kang plays Taylor Kwon, a D.C. cop who’s looking for those responsible for the death of his partner.  Coincidence?  The two meet and form a very uneasy alliance to help each other find the culprits and bring them to justice…you can probably guess which kind of justice each guy is out for.  This is a very, very tired, retread of very worn, dated “buddy” movies.  But this is directed by one of the originators of the “buddy” films, 48 Hours.  This shares much in common in not just the character traits, but in the dialogue and the staging as well.  The problem is that the chemistry between Stallone and Kang doesn’t even come close to replicating the magic between Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte.  Stallone seems to completely understand the stereotypes being played out and is “in” on the fact that this isn’t original.  He actually turns the racial divide between them from being full of racist jokes into almost a parody.  Stallone knows all the trite in the script and has a blast with it.  He makes every minute of Bullet that much more watchable…which is a good thing, because without him and Walter Hill, this is a direct-to-video vehicle for Steve Austin and…well, Sung Kang probably.  Kang isn’t a good actor by any means, and his Fast and Furious franchise appearances have him in a higher class than he should be.

The only other thing that makes this worth a look is for Jason Mamoa as Keegan, the heavy that took care of Bobo and Kwon’s respective partners.  I thought Mamoa was a PERFECT reinterpretation of Conan in Marcus Nispel’s dismal Conan the Barbarian reboot, but let’s face facts that he doesn’t LOOK like a hero.  His eyes and chiseled face scream evil, especially as Kahl in Game of Thrones.  Unfortunately for poor Jason, he’s been hired basically JUST for his physical presence — but what a presence.  Keegan isn’t a wordy character, he’s just a badass who learned how to do sword handling tricks and gets to show them off with an antique fire-ax.   Sweet.  The reason it all works as well as it does is Hill’s direction.  He keeps things brisk and professional looking, lets the blood flow, and even throws in some gratuitous nudity.  He’s revisiting elements and material he has a lot of experience with, and it’s a welcome return for him.  Hill’s sort of been in director jail after wanting his name off of 2000’s disastrous Supernova and helming 2002’s blah Undisputed.  He’s done some great production work, but he’s best behind the camera itself.

So Bullet to the Head isn’t a great movie.  It’s coming off the heels of The Last Stand, which was a vastly superior and way more fun action flick.  Both movies bombed, which further cements that we are no longer an “action hero” culture.  BUT… give Stallone a shot at playing Batman in a Dark Knight Returns film and it’d be brilliant .  Hell, cast Schwarzenegger as older Colossus in X-Men: Days of Future Past and people would go nuts.  Before you laugh, check out another of Walter Hill’s buddy flicks Red Heat and tell me Arnie wouldn’t be perfect, too.  This is the age of the superhero or the every-man hero.  As much fun as these throwback, 80’s style action films are, you literally have to put ALL of the stars together to get a turnout.  But while we’re waiting for another Expendables, it couldn’t hurt to see these old guys back to doing what they do best.  Walter Hill and Stallone can do a better, but you also can do a lot worse than giving Bullet to the Head a shot.  See what I did there?