Wednesday Movie Night: Bullet to the Head (2012)

Bullet to the Head was a huge flop at the theater last year. Not quite as huge as Jack The Giant Slayer and The Lone Ranger, but still a big one. I'm a little shocked this movie got a theatrical release anyways, but it was February and I can't say that is a very lucrative market for movies. Sylvester Stallone is showing that he is also not retiring, and will star in movies until he can't. Shockingly, Walter Hill isn't like many of the men who seem to direct movies like this though. He's a bit older, and has yet to seem to make that movie that garners attention. Even with a star studded movie like this it still didn't hit big.

Summary: New Orleans hitman, James Bonomo, and detective, Taylor Kwon, have both lost their partners to the same criminal. Now this puts them on the same path after the same guy, and if they want to increase their chances of catching him then it would be best to work together. Complications arise though as Taylor begins having an interest in James' daughter, Lisa, and Taylor's commitment to catching criminals keeps threatening to put him on the opposite side of James.


Acting: If you like Sylvester Stallone's acting then you might like this movie. I have to admit I've never seen his better reviewed movies like, Rocky, but in this I found Stallone believable, but the role had nothing that stood out about it. Stallone does what he knows best in this, and provides a guy who is just wanting revenge and then out of here. Sung Kang is Taylor, and honestly again nothing really popped about the character. He meshes well with Stallone, but nothing there was really memorable. Sarah Shahi is Lisa, and one of the characters that catches you attention a bit more on screen. I felt like this movie really relied on boobie scenes though to try to sell it. All the women in the move at some point are topless, and it's trying to mix action and girls too much. Jason Momoa is Keegan, and he's not a bad actor, but his role doesn't have much going on here as well as Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje who is Robert, who are the criminals in the movie. I just wasn't too into the characters or what happened to them.

Filming: The movie uses some unique transitioning techniques to begin and transition the movie. There are explosions that bring in a few of the scenes, and honestly it works to keep it interesting. It also has this very gritty music playing throughout. After a while this music seemed to be the only score they had because it kept playing over for much of the movie.

Plot: The plot wasn't intriguing either to me. Two guys team up to catch a man they want to get revenge on, while also discovering a world of corruption between lawyers, detectives, and the police department. To be honest the story line wasn't always clear to me, and I didn't have my usual movie explaining guide with me to help me keep up. This is the problem I find with many action movies, and that is so much focus is on the violence and action that the story line is too complex to fit into it all. With this movie there is a tone of gore in the plot, and it's just to a point where it grossed me out. 

If you're an action fan, like Sylvester Stallone, then this provides a movie that contains a good bit of both, and it isn't terrible, but it didn't interest me. Some might like the suspense or the mystery of it as you fall into the corrupt world that Taylor is unaware of. It's short and thankfully for me it didn't last too long before the movie was over.

Rating 4 of 10