per-181
I made the mistake of watching this piece of garbage on Film4 last night. A severe mistake indeed. Walter Hill as director - that was supposed to be a promising start, but no. Never have I seen such an enormous collection of clichés, coupled with bad direction, worse writing and even more horrific acting. Totally unnatural lines all over the place, with vaguely sketched characters "explaining" the plot to their henchmen or to the "cops" in never ending monologues. Stallone tries to sound cool and hip by delivering faux Mike Hammer lines, but fails epically. He never was a good actor, but here he just looks like a poster boy for bad wigs. Avoid this film like the plague!
Tweekums
James 'Jimmy Bobo' Bonomo is a hit-man working with his partner in New Orleans, here always referred to as 'Crescent City'. After their latest job, killing a corrupt cop from Washington DC, they go to get paid but things don't go to plan; somebody kills Jimmy's partner and tries to kill him. Meanwhile DC cop Taylor Kwon is in town investigating what happened to his former colleague and why. He quickly realises that Jimmy was involved and contacts him suggesting that they work together to find out who was ultimately behind the hit. Jimmy isn't initially keen to work with a cop but eventually they form an uneasy temporary alliance and start working their way up the criminal food chain. It won't be easy for them there are corrupt local cops trying to kill them as well as the bad guys.This is hardly a classic film but if you are a fan of the genre it passes the time well enough. The central partnership is entertaining precisely because Jimmy and Taylor have no real chemistry; they both dislike what the other stands for. There is plenty of exciting action; the best being an axe fight between Jimmy and the man who killed his partner. The story is solid enough although there are no real surprises. Sylvester Stallone is solid enough as Jimmy and Sung Kang is pretty good as Taylor. The rest of the cast are perfectly fine, notably Christian Slater who is fun as a sleazy lawyer; Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as the man behind everything; Sarah Shahi as Jimmy's daughter who gets caught up in the events and Jason Momoa as a hit-man who enjoys his work a little too much. Overall this is a decent enough way to pass the time if you are fan of the genre but not really a must see unless you are a Stallone completist.
bowmanblue
Bullet to the Head is basically a typical Stallone/Schwarzenegger film which would probably be more at home in the eighties or early nineties. Like Arnie's 'The Last Stand' it shows off what Stallone does best, i.e. grunt, look mean and generally kill people.This time he's a hit-man whose partner gets killed by... well, it doesn't matter. What does is that he makes sure the bodies start piling up.It's an action film. Nothing more, nothing less. There are no great surprises here and, if you know Stallone's body of work, you won't really expect much more.If you're looking for deep and meaningful character development with twists and turns and plenty of originality, move alone! If, however, you just want to see Stallone bust heads for an hour and a half, then put your brain on hold and enjoy Bullet to the Head (and quite possibly The Last Stand, as the two films seem to go hand in hand as two of a - highly entertaining, if rather dumb - kind).
Robert J. Maxwell
When it comes to brutality, you can go too far -- and they have gone it.It's got everything an action movie fan would want. First, there is Sly Stallone with his shirt off, only this time he's covered with tattoos. Next, there is the mild-mannered minority cop, Sung Kang, who teams up with hit man Stallone in order to find a smiling, high-echelon gangster who runs organized crime in Crescent City (ie., New Orleans). The gangster's chief muscle man who does the wet work is Jason Momoa, a heap of sarcomeres, who wipes out an entire room of people in cold blood. There's a delicious young brunette, Stallone's daughter, who is also tattooed, but not all over.The are gun shots galore, knifings, car chases, an explosion that destroys a fishing cabin and the dozen men inside. Plenty of mano a mano fights, it goes without saying. I gave up watching when Momoa abducted Stallone's daughter after decking two men. I didn't mind the abduction. It's just that Momoa is allowed to use the hoary device of bumping his head against somebody else's head in order to knock the enemy out. It's a violation of Newton's third law. I don't know much about physics but I know what I like.Stallone now has a neck the girth of a telephone pole and a raspy voice that can drop to such a low frequency that it can be heard only by elephants. He did a professional job in "Cop Land." It's a little sad to see how retrograde this film is.
AD
