Homefront Is Your Typical Action Flick

Daniella Cuencas ’16 / Emertainment Monthly Editor
Homefront sets the tone of the film by when it starts with a drug deal gone wrong. The protagonist, Phil Broker (portrayed by Jason Statham), is a cop in a bad situation. He is now the target of a biker gang seeking revenge for the death of a major drug lord’s son.
In an unfortunate incident involving Broker’s daughter and a bully at her school, Phil Broker is found out, as the bully’s mother is related to Gator, the main villain,who is played by James Franco. Ensuing is a montage of fight scenes and cliché script writing that makes the film seem hollow. The same biker gang Phil Broker turned in has been looking for him. Somehow, Gator develops a plan to kidnap Broker’s daughter and use her as bait for him to turn himself in to the biker gang.

Sylvester Stallone wrote the screenplay, and it certainly didn’t go unnoticed. The plot was very typical of an action movie. The hero must protect his family and at all costs fights his way through dozens of men to protect his own. Lots of explosions, obvious plot points, and some horrible southern accents make this movie worthy of skipping. Most of the focus was on the fight scenes with little real characterization or depth to the characters.
The major problem with the film is that the conflicts seem unrealistically related. Broker’s daughter manages to get into a fight with the school bully who has connections to Gator. In turn Gator also has connections to the biker gang looking for Broker. Honestly, the connection is rather tenuous and rather random. The whole plot focuses on chance and bad luck. Towards the end of the movie, the plot becomes pretty outrageous, with Gator shooting his own family member in order to achieve his lost cause of a plan, which is to become a better-known drug dealer.

The acting in this movie was great. At first it was a little awkward to see Jason Statham portraying a father, but he does a very convincing job of it. James Franco does a good job, too. Unlike most of his work, he fit the bill of a deadbeat small town criminal fairly well. One thing that both characters should have worked on would be their accents. Both tried to pull off a Southern drawl, but neither could really stick to it. Statham’s natural British accent made it difficult for him to stay in character. One actor who stole the show, surprisingly, was Gator’s sister, played by Kate Bosworth. She fully assumed the position of a druggie mom with lots of panache.

Overall, this movie isn’t anything spectacular. It’s great for a simple action movie that you don’t have to think about too much. This movie experience will be a little over the top at times and, frankly, impossible to believe, but the fighting scenes are easily the best part of this movie.
Overall Grade: C