Homefront

ACTION/ADVENTURE, SUSPENSE/THRILLER

Protecting Family

7.25 out of 10 | Rental

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Rated: R   Strong violence, pervasive language, drug content and brief sexuality
Release Date: November 27, 2013
Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes

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Director: Gary Fielder
Writers: Sylvester Stallone, based on the novel by Chuck Logan
Cast: Jason Statham, James Franco, Izabela Vidovic, Kate Bosworth, Marcus Hester, Clancy Brown, Winona Ryder, Frank Grillo

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SYNOPSIS: A former DEA agent moves his daughter to a quiet town, where he soon tangles with a local meth druglord.

REVIEW: Runaway Jury director Gary Fielder is no stranger to suspense or action, spending a lot of time directing action-oriented episodes for The Shield and Life on Mars. Now, with a script from none other than Sly Stallone (The Expendables 2) Fielder combines suspense and action together for a Thanksgiving weekend release.

Phil broker (Jason Statham, Parker) leaves the DEA after an undercover assignment goes sideways. Retiring to Rayville, Louisiana with his 10-year-old daughter Maddy (Izabela Vidovic), he tries to lead a normal life. When Maddy defends herself from a bully at school, it sets off a chain reaction of violence and revenge that starts with the boy's mother Cassie (Kate Bosworth, Superman Returns) and father Jimmy (Marcus Hester, Looper) before escalating to the mother's meth drug lord brother Morgan 'Gator' Bodice (James Franco, This is the End). When Gator learns of Phil's past life involving the leader of the biker gang The Outcasts, he tries to secure expansion opportunities by serving up Phil's location using his girlfriend Sheryl (Winona Ryder, Star Trek) as the go between.

From a story by Chuck Logan and adapted to the screen by the one and only Sylvester Stallone, Homefront is prototypical action flick. The protagonist is a capable ex-military, ex-agent who is just trying to leave his past behind and lead a normal life with his family. He tries to be a good man and devoted father, but his training and sense of right and wrong put him in the middle of circumstances that force him to take action to protect those he loves.

While not original in the action genre, the movie does bring some fresh life to it. Jason Statham is always fun to watch as an action hero, up there with Bruce Willis and Stallone. He has an easy way about him that makes him a good character for the forced upon vigilante while knowing how to kick some serious ass when he needs to. The choreography and action sequences illicit oohs and ahhs. Statham has great chemistry with his on-screen daughter played by newcomer Izabela Vidovic, making the duo very likable as a family unit. But as good as Jason Statham's presence and physicality are, it still would be nothing without a serious threat and villain.

James Franco, as the meth lord nicknamed Gator, puts a good performance as a ruthless meth cooker and brother trying to do right by his strung out sister. When Gator finds an opportunity to expand his business and change his own life at Phil Broker's expense, he jumps at the chance. Gator is only one of the villains that make this movie so good. Winona Ryder's Cheryl, ex-biker groupie and current Gator drug partner, seems only concerned about her own preservation. Trained killer and biker Cyrus, played by Frank Grillo (Zero Dark Thirty), is sent to deal with the Phil Broker loose end. As a collective this group of deviants could, at any moment, prove more than a match for Statham's character.

Homefront is a good blend of family bonding and villain pounding. Most of it may be a little cliché but Franco, Statham, Ryder and Grillo makes for a action and popcorn lovers spectacle, especially after stuffing oneself with turkey and stuffing.

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Zero Dark Thirty

Manhunt

★ ★ ★ ★ out of 5 buckets | Matinee or DVD

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Rated: R Brutal disturbing images, strong violence and language.
Release Date: December 19, 2012 (expands January 11, 2013)
Runtime: 2 hours 37 minutes

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Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Writers: Mark Boal
Cast: Jason Clarke, Jessica Chastain, Kyle Chandler, Harold Perrineau, Fredric Lehre, Edgar Ramirez, James Gandolfini, Joel Edgerton, Chris Prat, Frank Grillo, Mark Strong

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SYNOPSIS: A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L. Team 6 in May, 2011.

REVIEW: Kathryn Bigelow won the Oscar for Best Picture for her film The Hurt Locker.  Before that she had big with successes with Point Break, Near Dark, and Strange Days. Returning to the deserts of the Middle East, she reteams with The Hurt Locker scribe Mark Boal to tell the tale of the biggest manhunt of the 20th century.

Maya (Jessica Chastain, Lawless), a CIA field analyst, is sent to Pakistan two years after the attacks on the World Trade Center towers on September 11th, 2001. Taking part in the brutal interrogations of middle eastern detainees with ties to Alcaida and other terrorists groups, Maya uncovers a network of couriers who may lead to Osama bin Laden. After several years and several other successful bombings around the globe, Maya has to fight the war to capture Osama bin Laden on several fronts, including against a change complexion of terrorism, a United States government with a changing policy concerning interrogations and detainees, and a ticking clock against more pain and death.

Zero Dark Thirty is Kathryn Bigelow's second film to take place in the conflicts of the Middle East. From Jeremy Renner's turn as a bomb disposal expert in the hateful sands of the region to the long pursuit of the terrorist Osama bin Laden, Bigelow's captures the tireless persistence of American patriots who fight for the freedoms of their homeland at a cost that may be too lofty to truly commiserate.

Bigelow opens the film with complete darkness and the iconic date of "September 11th, 2001". All that is heard is various recordings from officials, air traffic controllers, 911 operators, and workers in the World Trade towers. As American society was plunged into a pessimistic darkness, Bigelow hurls us two years later where a young CIA agent recruited straight out of high school and into a CIA Black Site where seasoned agent Dan (Jason Clarke, Lawless) interrogates a money man with ties to the 9/11 attacks. We do not stay anywhere too long, as the hunt for Osama bin Laden and twenty of the top leaders of the Alcaida terror network. Maya is the fulcrum - with agents, detainees, soldiers, technicians, analysts, and terrorists changing around her over the years she struggled and sacrificed in her pursuit for bringing bin Laden to justice.

Jessica Chastain starts off her career as Maya as a tough, but new recruit assigned to overseeing CIA Black Site interrogations. As the years go on, Chastain hardens her character into a woman with a singular diamond point focus against the man who is a ghost in the Middle Eastern sands. As the pressure to find bin Laden grows, Maya butts heads and egos against her station chief Joseph Bradley (Kyle Chandler, Argo) for more resources, mourns for the loss of interrogative freedom along with Dan, and constantly struggles against the slow grind of political red tape against supervisor George (Mark Strong, Green Lantern) and the CIA Director (James Gandolfini, Killing Them Softly). Will the government move on intel that in less than 100%? Even the Seal Team 6 members, although well trained, are skeptical of the mission parameters. Squadron Team Leader Patrick (Joel Edgerton, The Odd Life of Timothy Green) and DEVGRU Justin (Chris Pratt, Moneyball) follow orders on the instincts of a woman who may be the singularly most knowledgeable person on who and where Osama bin Laden is.

Coming in at 157 minutes, you can feel the emotional toll that the ten years have on main character Maya in the story. The pace is slow and even, plodding along with the teams and analysts as they miss opportunities to capture key personal with knowledge of bin Laden's network. They unravel around the edges as terrorist cells continue to plot and carry out their destructive missions. As the end nears, the tension rises in the CIA bunkers in Langley, Virginia and in the Pakistan darkness. But the actual incursion by Seal Team 6 on the bin Laden compound seems too real world slow and methodical to work as the climatic ending on the big screen.

Bigelow and Boal use Chastain's Maya as an amalgam of a public suffering immense loss of its innocence, as well as the sometimes quiet, sometimes volatile outrage and frustration of American agencies trying to achieve a measure of closure against a single man whose orders and decisions changed the cultural outlook of a nation. The film pulls back the curtain of what America had to become in order to get this dirty job done, showing the raw methods necessary and rawer nerves that result.

Zero Dark Thirty is a hard and objective look at a decade-long hunt for one man. The men in the employ of the terrorists are not made monsters unnecessarily. In the same light, America is not left with virtuous clean hands either. We know how it ends, but we may know what it took to get there.

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End of Watch

Pushing Black and White

★ ★ ★ 1/2 out of 5 buckets | Matinee or DVD

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Rated: R Sexual references, pervasive language, some disturbing images, some drug use and strong violence

Release Date: September 21, 2012

Runtime: 1 hour 49 minutes

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Director: David Ayer
Writers: David Ayer
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Peña, Natalie Martinez, Anna Kendrick, Frank Grillo, America Ferrera, Cody Horn, David Harbour, Maurice Compte, Yahira Garcia

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SYNOPSIS: Two hot shot police officers are marked for death by a drug cartel after they are part of several busts of guns, money, and human traffickers.

REVIEW: David Ayer, writer of Training Day and S.W.A.T., graduates to writing/directing of his sophomore film with End of Watch. Gritty and raw, Ayer uses the documentary style Handicams, dashboard cruiser cams, and shaking handheld camerawork to delve into the workings of the life of two blue brothers in arms.

Police officers and partners Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal, Source Code) and Mike Zavala (Michael Pena, Tower Heist) patrol the streets like black and white pushing armed cowboys. While Taylor takes Pre-Med courses, he takes an elective course in filmmaking, resulting in him bringing a camcorder and other small cameras on the job. Cleared of a good shoot earlier, Taylor and Zavala get back out on the streets, answering calls ranging from assaults on mailmen to missing kids to gangland politics. When a routine stakeout turns into a traffic stop that involves weapons fire and the seizure of money and guns, Taylor and Zavala find themselves in a much bigger situation involving a drug cartel, human trafficking, drugs, guns, gangs, and a price on their heads.

David Ayer writes and directs a dramatic and realistic turn of two patrolling policemen who live and bleed blue for their brothers in arms while trying to maintain a life outside the force. Considered reckless cowboys on tour, Taylor and Zavala keep it light until they need to 'get the job done'. When out of uniform, Mike dotes on his high school sweetheart turned wife Gabby (Natalie Martinez, Death Race), while Brian trades in sleeping around for an intelligent, beautiful woman named Janet (Anna Kendrick, ParaNorman). At work or at play, the duo give it their intense best.

While Taylor and Zavala seem to have it all at home - loving women, babies on the way - but they may be unprepared for what is piecing together during their tours on the job. A stakeout turned traffic stop reveals money and guns and additional intel that lead Taylor and Zavala deeper into illegal activities and organizations that more covert law enforcement agencies are circling. As Taylor and Zavala uncover more dire and twisted locations run by local gangsters, they come to the attention of a Mexican drug cartel who kingpin decides that the decorated pair have caused enough problems for their operations and puts a price on their heads.

The acting is superb. Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena work great together, making you believe that these guys have been working the job together and having each others' back as friends and partners for a long time. Natalie Martinez and Anna Kendrick, as Brian and Mike's domestic partners, anchor the duo and the story in the real world. Cody Horn (Magic Mike) and America Ferrera (Ugly Betty) make for unlikely squad car mates, showing that they are much tougher than people thought. Frank Grillo (The Grey), as the Sarge, has been playing law enforcement for a while and it shows. On the other end of the law, Maurice Compte (Breaking Bad) as 'Big Evil' and Yahira Garcia as La La show why men and women of the police forces of this nation should be commended at a dangerous and sometimes thankless job.

The film slowly builds to an intense gun blazing ending. Gyllenhaal, Pena and the rest of the cast do their utmost best to move the story along, but their best still doesn't keep the story from slowing down from time to time. When the story steers to matters not involving carrying a badge and a Glock 19, the story meanders a little too long before the partners get back on shift and to horrifying discoveries. But once the sirens blare and the call goes out on the radio, the pace quickens with the adrenalin rush of facing uncertain death.

End of Watch is a rare flick that displays many facets of the life on the job and off. Equal parts domestic bliss, dull down-time between calls, and the sudden intensity of serving and protecting against unknown odds, this police drama shows heart, as well as violence. 

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The Grey

Survival at a Cost

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Rated: R  Violence and disturbing content including bloody images, and pervasive language
Release Date: January 27, 2012
Runtime: 1 hr 57 min

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Director: Joe Carnahan
Writers: Joe Carnahan, Ian Mackenzie Jeffers (from the short story "Ghost Walker")
Cast: Liam Neeson, Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo, James Badge Dale, Joe Anderson, Dallas Roberts

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SYNOPSIS: In Alaska, when an oil drilling team's plane crashes in the frozen wilderness, the team's head of security must lead the team to survive the elements and a pack of wolves who see them as intruders.

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REVIEW: Writer/director Joe Carnahan (Narc, Smoking Aces) reunites with his big screen A-Team lead Liam Neeson for a frosty wilderness adventure pitting a crashed oil team crew against the elements and hungry wolves. Based on the short story "Ghost Walker" from Ian Mackenzie Jeffers, who adds his efforts to the screenplay for the film, The Grey is a mix of action and drama set against the backdrop of an unforgiving wilderness.

John Ottway (Liam Neeson, The A-Team) has escaped to the Alaskan wilderness to serve as a wolf sniper for the crews of an oil company as they make repairs to the pipeline and work on the rigs. By day the men work on the rigs and pipeline, and by night they drink too heavily and fight too much. When several of the men are given furlough away from the rigs, Ottway catches a plane ride with them. In the middle of the flight, the plane crashes in the barren landscape of the snowy north. One of seven survivors from the flaming wreckage, Ottway bands them together to find fuel for warmth and food for sustenance. When a pack of wolves attack the camp around the wreckage, Ottway decides that making their way to the far-off tree line is their best chance at survival. With no better solutions at hand, the rest of the survivors including John Diaz (Frank Grillo, Warrior), Todd (Joe Anderson, The Crazies), Pete Hendricks (Dallas Roberts, 3:10 To Yuma), and three others scavenge the crash site then begin the trek across the snow to possible safety. All along, the pack of wolves follow the group and start picking off the survivors one by one.

Joe Carnahan, no stranger to action films with The A-Team and Smokin' Aces, takes a different tact with this tale of survival. Parts Viggo Mortensen's The Road, Anthony Hopkin's The Edge and Ethan Hawke's Alive, The Grey pushes together the simple act of survival with outside forces that makes that survival anything but simple. Can the dwindling group of men work together long enough to overcome the furry and fanged threats, or will they destroy themselves from within via infighting and desperation?

Vancouver is lovely this time of year, doubling as the Alaskan snow scape that the oil men must traverse. Carnahan uses the blustering snow dunes as a virtual no-man's land, stark and barren. Where the barren landscape offers little cover it allows for the group to see the wolves advancing from a long way off. Ottway believes the craggy and wooded forest will serve as a defensible position and heads in that direction with or without the rest of the group. The forest really offers little protection against the pack of wolves that continually stalk the group, truncating the group's sight lines and allowing for the wolves to blind side both the survivors and the audience.

Aside from the oil rig survivors and the vast unforgiving wilderness, the other character of The Grey is the wolf pack. When used sparingly and kept in rumbling shadows, the wolves maintain a ghostly menace that heightens the story's tension. Like a good ghost story, fear is most free-wheeling when the idea of danger and death is allowed to fester in the mind instead of in the eyes. When the entire wolf pack stares down the survivors, their green and amber eyes float in the darkness like specters. When they howl in unison in the darkness and only their breath is visible in the moon's reflection, dread truly sets in. But when we see the pack or a single wolf full out in certain scenes, the CGI does show through and distracts from the suspense.

Liam Neeson adds his strong even narrative voice to the film, letting us know that we are dealing with the dregs of society at the ends of the world. Something had driven these men to an existence in such a harsh environment. Eventually we learn more about what drives these brawlers, drinkers, and smart asses and get under their skins to care more about them.

The Grey shows that we are all instinctual at our core when faced with impossible odds. Logic, faith, religion, or sheer determination sometimes give way to more base animal behavior in times of desperation. Alphas emerge to lead. Betas fight to be the top dog. And survival usually goes to the fittest.


NOTE: Stay until the end of the credits for a final Easter Egg.

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WORTH: Matinee or Rental

Warrior

Gripping and Powerful

Director: Gavin O'Connor
Writers: Gavin O'Connor, Anthony Tambakis, Cliff Dorfman
Cast: Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison, Frank Grillo

SYNOPSIS: A huge Mixed Martial Arts tournament puts a financially struggling family man on a collision course with his ex-boxer, ex-alcoholic father and his driven, hate-filled ex-Marine younger brother.

REVIEW: Gavin O'Connor, director of Miracle and Pride and Glory, takes a script he wrote with Anthony Tambakis, Cliff Dorfman for Warrior. A drama based on two brothers, their ex-boxer father and a quest for one brother to proof his worth and the other to provide for his family. Is it the upbringing of violence that drives these men to make the decisions they do - or something else?

Brendan Conlon (Joel Edgerton from Kinky Boot and the upcoming The Thing prequel), the oldest son of ex-boxer Paddy (Nick Nolte), struggles to keep his family afloat on his salary during the depressed economy. Youngest son and ex-Marine Tommy Riordan (Tom Hardy from Inception and the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises) returns home a reluctant hero and looks to train for a Mixed Martial Arts tournament with a huge pay day. Returning to the sport as an amateur to make extra money, Brendan finds himself on a collision course to face his brother in the tournament and deal with all of the bad blood between his father and brother.

A gripping, exhilarating and powerful sports drama, Warrior shows the extent a man will go to protect and provide for his family, and well as the possible physical and emotional implications of a broken, dysfunctional upbringing. Can Paddy gain forgiveness from his sons for the drunken abuse he dished out on his wife and sons? Can Tommy let go the hatred for Brendan and his father for the deep-seated feelings of abandonment and being forced to become a man too soon to protect his now-deceased mother? Can Brendan gain the respect of his brother? Although Warrior is being touted as a uplifting sports drama, the film delves deep into the psyche of a broken, near-irreparable family whose only only emotional release seems to come from violence and brutal physical contact.

The cast is superb. Nick Nolte, with his piercing eyes, worn face and gravelly voice intact, embodies an old weathered broken man haunted by his past sins looking to gain even a small measure of forgiveness from his sons. Almost 1,000 days sober when the movie begins, Paddy has turned to listening to Moby Dick on audio book - a direct parallel of a man chasing something that may be at once both unattainable and ultimately the source of his own destruction. Tom Hardy, as Tommy, bulked up to the Nth degree, casts a unnerving and unflinching shadow against his father and brother, driven to the tournament to atone for his own past sins. Every scene between him and the men in his family is an instruction on conveying a bottled-up rage. Joel Edgerton, as Brendan, remains stoic, knowing that fighting is the only way to ensure that his family will not be forced into foreclosure due to bank recommended over-extension and an upside-down mortgage.

Warrior is akin to the original Rocky in that the film is as much about the drama between people as it is about the sport of fighting. Dramatic, empowering, brutal and, at times, funny, Warrior is an example of how a film extends past what its commercials claims it to be. A brutal, hard look at a family's dysfunction, Warrior shows how the healing of old deep jagged wounds can only be achieved by the opening up of new ones.

WORTH: Matinee or DVD