Review: Homefront

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★

I wouldn’t mind seeing the stacks of screenplays Jason Statham must have on his desk at home. They’re probably all full of the most generic tough guy stuff anyone can dream up in an afternoon. I then have to wonder how he chooses his roles or if someone chooses them for him. Or maybe he owes his friend Sylvester Stallone a favor. I’m not really sure what drew his attention to “Homefront” other than a desire to try something a little more dramatic.

Jason Statham attempting the flex his dramatic muscles.

Phil Broker (Statham) is an undercover DEA agent looking to take down a biker run crystal meth operation somewhere in Louisiana. The leader of this drug outfit is a guy named Danny T (Chuck Zito). Danny’s son is gunned down and killed by the DEA agents during the takedown, and of course he holds Broker personally responsible for it.

Two years later, Broker has left the force and has moved to a very small town with his soon-to-be 10 year old daughter Maddy (Izabela Vidovic). One day at school, a bully named Teddy (Austin Craig) tries to pick on Maddy but she ends up taking him down with two hits. Her dad is Jason Statham after all, so of course she knows how to do this. Teddy’s mom Cassie (Kate Bosworth), who is high on meth most of the time, holds Broker personally responsible (sensing the pattern yet?). She tries to get her husband Jimmy (Marcus Hester) to stand up for them, but Broker easily takes him down. Oh, it’s on now.

Feeling nothing more than disrespect, Cassie turns to her brother Gator Bodine (James Franco) to get back at Broker and his daughter. Gator runs his own meth kitchen as well. He pays off the town sheriff (Clancy Brown) to look the other way so he can cook and sell without being caught. Gator sends out a couple goons to take down Broker, but Broker takes them down first (typical Statham). Gator breaks into Broker’s home to see what he’s up against and discovers Broker’s DEA past. He sees the connection to Danny T and enlists the help of a meth groupie (yes, they have those apparently) Sheryl Mott (Winona Ryder) to offer up Broker to Danny T’s people. In exchange he wants distribution of his own meth statewide.

“Homefront” fires and misses on just about every level. It’s not a total disaster, especially if you like tough guy-Statham. This is a pretty typical role for him, but the only difference is that “Homefront” plays more like a drama rather than the explosive action movies he usual makes. The action sequences are few in numbers, but do play really well when they’re on screen. Credit that to director Gary Fleder. He’s done well with the drama/thriller genre before with films like “Kiss the Girls” and “Runaway Jury” but this is his first foray into the action genre. For his first time out, he pulls that off nicely.  

Outside of that, “Homefront” is miserable bore. That blame falls squarely on screenwriter Sylvester Stallone who adapted this from a novel by Chuck Logan. Stallone leaves a lot to be desired with the story. The entire driving force behind the conflict here is disrespect. They want Statham dead because he disrespected a man in public. The voices of reason in town (they're the only people in town without Southern accents, so you can be sure which character isn’t a white trash redneck) chalk it up to typical southern feuds (i.e. Hatfield and McCoy). They don’t take too kindly to folks who ain’t from around these here parts.

So our villains are feuding rednecks from Deep South Louisiana going up against Statham. It’s not a very solid foundation upon which to build a story. There’s nothing to differentiate the characters from one another. Bosworth plays a tweeked out redneck while Franco plays her brother: a tweeked out redneck, except he has a bit of a brain on him. Furthermore, Franco’s character isn’t someone I understand either. He seems to be doing pretty well for himself in this town especially since he’s got the sheriff in his back pocket. Suddenly he turns greedy and will stop at nothing to see Statham go down. All because his brother-in-law, a man he doesn’t even like, is disrespected in front of teachers. There’s nothing to grasp here.

Franco isn’t believable as a villain either. I know I probably shouldn’t say this, but I think it’s going to be very hard for me to take him seriously again after this past summer’s “This is the End”. And then there was his parody of the Kanye West video that was released this week where he once again acts like a goof with movie star BFF Seth Rogen. I know he can act because he’s been solid in dramatic roles before. Since his “Homefront” character is about as flat and clichéd as just about everything else, I can’t help by laugh at him. And he’s got a horrible Southern accent too.

Statham is Statham. You either like him or you don’t. He brings nothing new to his performance in “Homefront”. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but if he has any desire to try some more dramatic roles like this he’s going to need practice. Vidovic, who plays his daughter, is also somewhat of a letdown. After a commanding first scene, I thought she would be the show stealer. Her character is never really allowed to develop. They’ll throw little bits of dialogue in there that try to draw sympathy from the audience, but overall she comes across as annoying. That’s not necessarily her fault. That’s more on Stallone for giving her nothing to work with.

“Homefront” is fairly decent when it’s trying to be an action film, but it falls flat on its face when it turns into a drama. If tough guy-Statham is something you like, there are a lot of things you might find worthwhile here. You’re going to have to sit through a lot of exposition just to get there though. With a better screenplay and better performances, this might have been enjoyable. Instead, it’s a frustrating experience that will soon be relegated to a truck stop DVD buy-one-get-one bin and lost forever.