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Wednesday, November 27, 2013

MOVIE REVIEW Homefront
Firefights, And Too Many Cooks, In Raylene, Louisiana
  
James Franco as Gator Bodine in Gary Fleder's action-drama "Homefront".  Open Road
        
by Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW                                           
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
The image above is the most memorable and colorful one in Gary Fleder's action-drama "Homefront", set in Louisiana, based on Chuck Logan's novel and adapted for the screen by Sylvester Stallone.  The rest of the film is a forgettable, subpar experience, a case of too many characters spoiling the Bayou in a shape-shifting wafer-thin story of little consequence.

A widowed ex-Drug Enforcement Agency cop Phil Broker (Jason Statham) brings his ten-year-old daughter Maddy (newcomer Izabela Vidovic) to the fictional suburban town of Raylene, to live a new life in retirement after the shooting death of a drug courier.  Phil breaks bread in his new environment by breaking the bones of those who would try to harm his daughter, or who are generally disagreeable.  The rest of the time he and Maddy are secluded in their pastoral surroundings, which will soon be disrupted by petty drug operator Gator (James Franco) and a motley crew of people, some Gator doesn't care for himself.

"Homefront", an odd title for this meaningless exercise, drifts aimlessly from father-daughter story, to snarling drug big fish in small pond protecting his turf story, to a group of third parties with their own agendas, to showdown between Mr. Statham and Mr. Franco.  Gator, an anti-drug drug dealer who breaks a few bones of his own to protect his drug den, is an odious middle-man stuck between a group of drug bandits led by Frank Grillo (whose talents are wasted here) and the stoic Phil, who just wants to enjoy his home on the range in peace.  All are disconnected entities. 

Gator's time is spent counting his drugs and wham-bamming his girlfriend Sheryl (an unrecognizable Winona Ryder).  As played by the ubiquitous Mr. Franco, Gator is a sedated, rural edition of his Alien character from "Spring Breakers" earlier this year.

This swampy mess is not the fault of the actors -- it's the poorly-written script by Mr. Stallone that crumbles faster than Gator's drug den.  Some of the cooks spoiling Mr. Fleder's film are indistinguishable.  A virtual write-off, "Homefront" will quickly recede from memory.  Mr. Fleder, who directed "Kiss The Girls", could just as well say "kiss my grits" to critics with this expedient Southern B-movie tale.  The biggest lesson of "Homefront", whose poster has an American flag emblazoned on the back of Phil's denim jacket, is that violence is oh so good -- just not in front of the kids, please.

Also with: Kate Bosworth, Marcus Hester, Omar Benson Miller, Clancy Brown, Rachelle Lefevre, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Chuck Zito.

"Homefront" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association Of America for strong violence, pervasive language, drug content and brief sexuality.  The film's running time is one hour and 40 minutes.
 
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