Movie Review: "Homefront" (2013)

Movie: "Homefront"
Director: Gary Fleder
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

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Former undercover DEA agent Phil Broker (Jason Statham) and his daughter Maddy (Izabela Vidovic) have just moved to small rural town in the south. Broker is trying to get away from it all after his last job, where he posed as a biker to take out a meth-dealing motorcycle gang. After a sting-gone-wrong, the leader of the gang Danny T's (Chuck Zito) son is killed. After an altercation at Maddy's school between her and another young boy, where she punched him in the face after being bullied, the kid's crazy tweaker mother Cassie (Kate Bosworth) asks her brother Gator (James Franco) to scare Broker and his daughter a little bit. Gator is a small time meth cooker and doesn't enjoy competition. Gator breaks into Broker's house and discovers his secret past. He offers up this information to Danny T for free with the help of Sheryl Marie Mott (Winona Ryder), his business partner and friend with benefits, in exchange for distribution of his drugs so he can strike it rich. Danny T puts a hit out on Broker and all hell breaks loose in their small town.

...We want Jason Statham to be our dad.

FINALLY a Jason Statham action movie we didn't hate!!!

When you go to see a Jason Statham movie with a screenplay written by Rambo (which we didn't know until we were watching the credits), you pretty much know what to expect. You're not getting Shakespeare, you're not getting "Schindler's List." You're getting a movie where people get kicked in the head or punched with gasoline pumps. You're getting "BOOM, HEADSHOTS!!!!" and lots of loud, fiery explosions. If you expect more than that, for shame.

I think that "Homefront" is the most substantial role Jason Statham has ever had as far as back-story and depth go. We appreciate that the action isn't so over-the-top like in his previous roles, but it's still pretty heavy. It didn't seem ridiculously fake or CGI, the explosions and gunfights seemed real. One note: it did seem like it was trying to capitalize on the success of "Breaking Bad," a bit.

The only thing that had me puzzled, and it's completely arbitrary, is how he, a student's father, asked the school psychologist to plan his daughter's birthday party outside of school? This screams conflict of interest, DAVID! Rachelle Lefevre is clearly only there as a love interest in the movie, but this plot point goes nowhere. Why do movies employ people if their roles go nowhere?! It makes no sense and seems like a waste of money and pisses us off.

That being said, this movie is entertaining, fairly interesting, and a bit captivating! We didn't roll our eyes once during the film, so I'd say that is an improvement.

My Rating: 6.5/10
BigJ's Rating: 7/10
IMDB's Rating: 6.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 38%
Do we recommend this movie: Sure, why not?