Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Homefront Blu-ray Movie Review

"Whatever you're thinking... rethink it."

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown March 11, 2014

Homefront belongs to a raggedy old breed of '90s homestead action thriller that refuses to go quietly into the night. Adapted from the Chuck Logan novel of the same name by none other than genre icon Sylvester Stallone, the film limps from one fight scene to the next without laying sufficient groundwork. The script is rife with cliché and bad dialogue, the story is both underdeveloped and unnecessarily convoluted, and the hometown heroes and backwoods criminals make one boneheaded decision after another. It doesn't help that the characters are reduced to two-dimensional caricatures, chief among them Jason Statham's umpteenth man of action -- hitting a rare trifecta as a former soldier, ex-cop and devoted single father -- and James Franco's southern fried cornbread kingpin, Gator Bodine. (One more time: Gator Bodine.) More troubling? The split-second beatdowns, splashy shootouts and 'splodey bits are as slick and improbable as they are overly choreographed and brutally edited... which would be all well and good if Stallone and director Gary Fleder subscribed to the Tenets of Big Dumb Fun. Particularly #7: Thou shalt not aim so high whilst firing so low. Homefront is Big Dumb Fun minus the fun, taking itself much too seriously while pushing its action too far over the top.

When an undercover assignment ends with the death of a notorious gang leader's son, newly retired DEA agent Phil Broker (Statham) goes off the grid and retreats to a quiet southern town with his daughter, Maddy (Izabela Vidovic). His dreams of raising his little girl in safety and security are shattered, though, when young Maddy defends herself on the school playground, punching a bully and inadvertently infuriating the boy's mother, Cassie Bodine (Kate Bosworth). Desperate to teach Broker a lesson, Cassie turns to her big brother, Morgan "Gator" Bodine (Franco), a local meth dealer who soon makes (laughably) short work of uncovering Broker's true identity. Armed with information, Gator and his girlfriend, tweaker Sheryl Mott (Winona Ryder), arrange a meeting with the motorcycle gang Broker betrayed in the hopes of bartering a distribution deal that will take Gator's product nationwide. Broker suddenly finds himself in an impossible situation, fighting to keep his daughter safe from Bodine and his thugs, a potentially corrupt sheriff (Clancy Brown) and a hit squad of vindictive bikers.

There's a certain satisfaction in watching Statham drop into blunt force action mode and tear his way through a small army of burnt out brawlers, gun-toting bikers and a su'thun drawlin', meth-addled Big Jim Franco. As many problems as Homefront suffers, Statham's prowess with a swift kick and a bone-crushing punch isn't one of them. (Much as his performances are routinely dismissed by critics, I actually enjoy his screen presence. He's rarely as one-note or flat as some insist, and it's no different here, type-cast as he is.) Unfortunately, there isn't much harmony between Stallone and Fleder's hard-hitting thrills and character-driven narrative. Homefront is a slowburn, tactical father/daughter drama one minute (or rather for fifteen, twenty minutes at a time) and a fist-flinging, guns-blazin' actioner the next, with jarring transitions that essentially amount to Statham patiently keeping his skills holsters until it's high time to snap. You've seen it a hundred times before -- the stoic, unassuming do-gooder with the powers of a nigh untouchable special forces juggernaut -- and Stallone and Fleder do little to set Homefront or Broker apart.

Other issues arrive in threes:

The supporting cast flails. Ryder's drug addict marks a new low for the fading star, whose darting eyes, involuntary twitches and shaky voice are too stagey and obvious to elicit anything but uncomfortable laughter; Brown is horribly underutilized in a corruption subplot that's introduced and summarily abandoned; and Bosworth careens from scene to scene, only to do a bizarre 180 when Cassie's homicidal brother gets around to being, you know, homicidal. The plot is direct-to-video fodder too, with a jumble of ideas culled from sharper smalltown action dramas, some of them straight out of Stallone's past; there isn't a compelling arc to be found, even with Statham's Broker, who begins at point A, circles point A searching for direction, and finally, at long last, finds his way to... point A; and the sweet, quiet moments shared between father and daughter, though well acted and most appreciated, are too idyllic to lend depth to the rockiness Stallone hints at in Broker and Maddy's relationship. Then there's the film's third act, which shudders to an anticlimactic halt as an oh so generic genre showdown collides with Theo van de Sande's generic genre cinematography and Mark Isham's uncharacteristically generic genre music.

No, Homefront isn't terrible. It's serviceable, if serviceable action is your thing. But it could have been more. A chance for Statham to prove his dramatic mettle, for one. Or an opportunity for Stallone to churn out a more realistic flawed hero tale in the vein of Copland. A film more concerned with who Broker is than the hurt he's capable of dishing out. These elements are in place, sure, but they're malnourished and neglected, and frustratingly so. There's a Homefront worth watching in Stallone's mind's eye, a Broker worth rooting for in Statham's performance, and a story worth sinking into in Logan's novel. This just isn't it.

Homefront Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Homefront features a faithful-to-a-fault 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer that, for the most part, impresses. Sunlit scenes are bright and washed out, albeit naturally so; the Broker house interiors are warm and inviting, at least until Statham requires the cloak of darkness; and nighttime sequences are bleak and oppressive, with vivid splashes of twilight blue set against deep, occasionally dusty blacks. Primaries are stylized but strong, skintones are relatively lifelike from shot to shot, and detail is only hampered by mild to moderate crush and uneven noise, both of which are tied to the film's photography. Thankfully, edge definition is clean and refined on the whole, without any halos or ringing, and fine textures and grain are nicely resolved. Softness isn't entirely uncommon, mind you, but it too falls aligns with Felder and cinematographer Theo van de Sande's intentions. The encode itself is quite proficient as well. Significant artifacting, banding and aliasing aren't at play, and very few distractions rear their ugly heads. All told, the presentation is a solid one.

Homefront Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Homefront is loud, and I mean loud, kicking off with an explosive biker gang takedown that sets the bar for the action beats to come. But the film is also one of quiet moments, heartfelt exchanges between father and daughter, and suspenseful silence whenever a fistfight or shootout is being loaded in the chamber. Universal's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track handles these competing extremes with ease, without once failing to hold up its end of the bargain. Dialogue remains clear and carefully prioritized; never too subdued when things are calm, never buried by the violence that inevitably erupts. LFE output teases the listener much the same way, tip-toeing along until it pounces. Dynamics are excellent, low-end oomph is sizable, and every punch, kick and shotgun blast makes an impact. The rear speakers do a great job of creating an immersive small southern town as well, with an enveloping soundfield, precise directionality, smooth pans and a penchant for convincing ambience. The final moments of the film get a bit too loud, but I'll give it a good ol' genre pass. Action fans won't be disappointed.

Homefront Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Blu-ray edition of Homefront includes two special features: a thin collection of inconsequential deleted scenes (HD, 9 minutes), one of which is an extended ending, and "Standoff" (HD, 3 minutes), a brief talking heads promo.

Homefront Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Homefront will make for a decent Redbox rental I suppose, but it's hard to enjoy a genre pic that clumsily follows in so many other films' footsteps. Statham is a capable leading man and Franco has a blast getting high on the ever-colorful Gator's supply, but Stallone's script, Felder's fundamentals and the supporting cast's performances are weak and derivative. Fortunately, Universal's Blu-ray release is better -- with a strong video presentation and terrific DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track -- if, that is, you ignore the disc's anemic supplemental package.