Homefront

Released by: Universal Studios
Released on: March 11th, 2014.
Director: Gary Felder
Cast: Jason Statham, James Franco, Winona Ryder, Kate Bosworth, Rachelle Lefevre
Year: 2013
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The Movie:

Written by Sylvester Stallone and directed by Gary Fleder (known for middling fare like KISS THE GIRLS and DON'T SAY A WORD), HOMEFRONT is essentially a string of action movie cliches strung into a serviceable DTV programmer. It has a slightly more expensive sheen to it due to the presence of borderline A-listers James Franco, Winona Ryder and Kate Bosworth, but the truth remains. This is genre 101.

The film opens with an inner city drug raid gone horribly wrong. DEA agent Phil Broker (Jason Statham) is deeply undercover in a biker gang meth ring. The raid ends in the demise of the gang leader's unhinged son - and Broker's cover is blown. Sent to prison the biker leader vows revenge...

Cut to ten years later and somebody's busted out the plot by numbers chart. Broker is now a single widower dad living in rural Louisiana with an adorable ten year old daughter named Maddy (Izabela Vidovic). He's changed his name and while this isn't exactly an idyllic setup it's calm enough. At least until his daughter beats up the local schoolyard bully and comes to the attention of white trash mom Cassie Bodine (Kate Bosworth) that is. This is one of those characters you just know is bad cause she chain smokes and has dirty hair. Cassie takes her petty beef to her brother Gator - James Franco in the film's one left-handed curveball - who happens to be running the town's up and coming meth dealership. Gator is looking to expand his operation and happens to know some of Broker's old biker acquaintances as well as Broker's real identity. With the help of his addict girlfriend Sheryl (Winona Ryder) he attempts to trade Broker's location (and life) for a piece of his rival's pie.

What works in HOMEFRONT is the action. Statham is an old hand at this and it shows. He has good bone cracking style and has perfected his almost ludicrously macho growling voice. At first he's just beating up wannabe redneck brawlers but by the end when we get the inevitable full-scale armed assault on his huge home the guns and big-ass explosions get busted out. It all adds up to perfectly watchable action gruel. Where HOMEFRONT falls on its butt is the attempts at "meaningful" drama. It is fun watching hard case Statham get cutesy with his sweet daughter but the rest is simply silly. Cassie goes from total ball-buster to "hands off the kid" just to make the final act work. Character actor Clancy Brown is wasted as the town sheriff with questionable motives and Ryder, while looking fantastic, gets quite cartoony with the twitching. The wild card is Franco. I found his quirky and low key attempt at menace interesting, but many may feel like they are watching a hipster icon flail helplessly in a character zone they cannot handle. And c'mon. Gator? What kind of an obvious name is that?

While it has nods to the classic FIRST BLOOD and even the iconic STRAW DOGS, HOMEFRONT just doesn't have the genuine stones to attempt to add dramatic weight to this warmed over stew of an action plot. The script is too weak. At the final tip of the scales HOMEFRONT winds up right in the middle: mildly enjoyable, notably flawed and fairly forgettable.

Video/Audio/Extras:

HOMEFRONT's 1080p AVC encoded transfer in 2.35 :1 looks about as you'd expect a decently budgeted recent release to - quite good. Black levels, fine image detail and color representation are all well above average. Darker scenes are nicely detailed and no sharpening or digital artifacts is in evidence. This is a very good transfer.

Audio is a quite powerful DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that is the disc's strongest tech achievement. This is a very muscular and sometimes riotously loud track but the balance is excellent between dialog and boom-boom. LFE action is very impressive as well. A+

Extras consist of a barely 3 minute plug that I wouldn't even call a featurette and some inconsequential deleted scenes. The only deleted bit of any real interest is the extended final scene.

The Final Word:

A perfectly pleasant afternoon flick for the action movie junkie due to its decent production values and solid (though occasionally fumbling) cast, I can't really see HOMEFRONT's grasp exceeding much past the genre faithful. It had some ambitions beyond the obvious but just couldn't deliver. Ultimately however in this wheelhouse you could do FAR worse.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!