Bullet to the Head

'BULLET TO THE HEAD': Four Stars (Out of Five)

Sylvester Stallone in a classic 80s style revenge action film directed by none other than Walter Hill (who helmed such popular 70s through 90s action flicks as 'THE WARRIORS', 'THE LONG RIDERS', '48 HOURS', 'RED HEAT', 'EXTREME PREJUDICE', 'TRESSPASS' and 'LAST MAN STANDING'). The film is based on a graphic novel (of the same name, when translated to English) by Alexis Nolent and illustrated by Colin Wilson. It was scripted by Alessandro Camon and puts Stallone in a buddy tale as a hit-man teamed with a cop out to revenge the killing of his partner. It also pits Stallone in a classic axe fight with Jason Momoa (of 'STARGATE: ATLANTIS', 'BAYWATCH' and 'GAME OF THRONES' fame. He also played Conan in the recent 'CONAN THE BARBARIAN' reboot). The film also co-stars Sung Kang (most well known from 'THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS' franchise), Christian Slater and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. It's a great throwback to 80s action flicks and Stallone and Hill fans should be thrilled with it.

Stallone plays James Bonomo, a hit-man in New Orleans who takes an assignment to kill a dirty cop, named Hank Greely (Holt McCallany), with his partner, Louis Blanchard (Jon Seda), but leaves a witness alive, a prostitute the cop was sleeping with named Lola (Weronika Rosati). Bonomo and Blanchard are later attacked at a bar by another hired killer named Keegan (Momoa). Keegan kills Blanchard but fails to defeat Bonomo in a bathroom brawl. Bonomo later learns that Keegan is working for a man named Robert Morel (Akinnuoye-Agbaje) who wants a file Greely had. Bonomo of course wants revenge for the death of his partner. A cop named Taylor Kwan (Kang) comes to town to investigate the death of his ex-partner, Greely, and pieces it together that Bonomo was involved. The two reluctantly team up to stop Morel and Keegan. The beautiful Sarah Shahi also co-stars as Bonomo's daughter, who helps him out when Kwan is in need of medical attention (because she's a tattoo artist).

The film, for me, had exactly the same feel as the old neo-noir revenge flicks from two to four decades ago (the same ones that Stallone used to star in or Hill used to direct). While watching it it almost feels like you've been thrown back in time to the 80s or early 90s! It's just great nostalgic fun and Stallone is perfect in it. Kang makes a great sidekick and Momoa is an awesome bad guy. It's of course perfectly directed by Hill as well (who hasn't changed at all in style in the last thirty-some years). The script isn't very deep and the lines are sometimes very cheesy but that's the way it's supposed to be. I enjoyed it more than 'EXPENDABLES' co-stars, of Stallone's, latest action vehicles (Schwarzenegger's 'THE LAST STAND' and Statham's 'PARKER'), which came out in theaters weeks apart from each other. They all underperformed greatly at the box office (especially this one) but people are idiots and have poor taste in movies (also all three will kill on video). It's a great B action film, the kind that Stallone and Hill are legendary for!

Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH2nsN_uuBI

When I eat a burger I don't expect a steak. This is clearly a burger. A cheesy burger, but a solid burger.

Good action, some fun jokes, and general mayhem. No thinking required

Enjoy your burger. 😉

2013 has already brought back two of the coolest, if not the coolest action heroes: Schwarzenegger and now Stallone. The funny thing about it all is that Stallone already had his returning movie last year with the Expendables 2 as it mainly focused around him. Anyways, the trailer to the movie, as many may have said, looked absolutely horrible and I didn't really have any intention of seeing this, despite Stallone being my second favorite action star. Now, I'm kinda glad I saw it The film is based around Stallone's character James who is on a rampage to avenge the death of his fellow partner who was killed. Now the story line has been done to death but there is an alliance formed which was kinda cool. The most important thing about this movie is that it isn't trying to take the story far too seriously but keeps it important and is actually very good if you look at it.

The acting in the movie can be both good and crap but we really don't care much about the acting. Its about the action and having fun and the film knows itself. It actually brings us back to the 80's Stallone we used to love and is really cool! Sure there is plenty of bad dialogue, but no one really cares about that neither with any of the other flaws all for a legit reason; because the film knows what it is.

There is plenty of digital blood which is now commonly used in all action movies and can sometimes get a tad frustrating but is not a big issue.

Overall, I can say that this movie is made for Stallone fans! Worth a watch!

Now i'll admit I'm an action junkie and almost all the movies I review are in this genre. So with that in mind I'm an obvious fan of Stallone and Walter Hill. If you are also you'll like this as he one lines, punches, shoots, explodes and stabs his way through this film. Now the plot is very cliché and predictable which is why I would give it a 6.

However I do enjoy the retro,cheesy 80's feel this movie has. Overall, the film is average but watchable. Thats because of the Stallone/Hill combination and the action throughout. Comparing it to another similar retro action film from an ageing action star in early 2013 (The Last Stand),I felt that the last stand was more fun and enjoyable. But I'd still recommend both films if your a fan of the genre and the actors.

7/10.

This movie plays out exactly like a video game, complete with a Blackberry that feeds objectives and information. The bad guys give up info way too easy. Sung Gang is wooden and completely cliché for the good cop role.

That said, if you can live with the video game flow, its a decent action flick with plenty of violence that warrants the title of the film. Stallone is, well he's Stallone, nothing surprising there. Jason Momoa is decent as the killer. To be honest, he's actually a better actor than the script he is given. You don't (or shouldn't) watch these movies for great acting anyway. It delivers on the action mostly and violence totally. They even threw in a couple nude scenes with no point to the story line just to give it that earlier 80's action movie feel before they all started going PG and PG-13.

I give it a 6 because it was only slightly worse than I expected. Classic action movie that seemed like it might have been scripted for a game before it was scripted for movie.