Jason Statham has pummeled all sorts of low-lifes in his movies, but HOMEFRONT takes the sexy action star into redneck territory.
HOMEFRONT begins with Jason Statham posing as a gangster biker for a drug lord in the city. The undercover DEA agents gets his man but someone is needlessly gunned down, which sends agent Phil Broker packing to the backwaters of Louisiana with his 10-year-old daughter. Broker is hoping for a normal life in the bayou until a fight between his daughter and a local boy infuriates the redneck community especially his tweaker mother Cassie (Kate Bosworth) who happens to be the sibling of a local meth dealer Gator Bodine (James Franco). Prompted by Cassie, she sends Gator to intimidate the newbies in revenge for embarrassing her boy. But in usual Jason Statham fashion, they messed with the wrong guy. Bam!
However, HOMEFRONT is not just another Jason Statham vehicle for an action movie. Statham is surrounded by recognizable stars such as James Franco, Winona Ryder and Kate Bosworth playing rednecks who are not exactly looking pretty. Kate Bosworth looks the part of a tweaker, looking strung out and boney, and Winona is a trashy Southern girl, a role we’ve never seen Winona play.
Franco in the meantime doesn’t go full redneck because he already did so in Spring Breakers and we saw him play a tweaker in the Tina Fey and Steve Carell comedy, Date Night. Instead he plays it straight with a mild Southern accent, which is not always consistent. James’ Gator Bodine doesn’t look much like a threat to Jason Statham, but his men are. And that’s when the story gets even more interesting, when he calls in the big guns. After finding out about Broker’s past and that he was the snitch that landed the city drug lord in jail and got his son killed, Franco sends his Winona to make a deal with the imprisoned drug dealer and his motorcycle gang in exchange for Broker’s location. You can probably guess how that ends, but every beating is deserved.
Statham is always enjoyable to watch and always brings a likeable quality to his characters especially playing a single father that will have the females swooning over him even more.
The script by Sylvester Stallone is somewhat predictable, but he knows action and writes with that in mind. The story could've easily made caricatures of the rednecks but it didn't go there. The characters are well-balanced with Franco, Bosworth and Ryder lending their talents to the roles. These parts could've easily been stereotypes, but they managed to bring a quality to their despicable characters.
You forget the guy behind Rocky and Rambo is also an Academy Award winning screenwriter (Rocky) and he’s written over 20 movies including The Expendables franchise. Originally intended for himself to star in, he decided against it and went for the more marketable guy and his Expendable co-star which was a good move. I couldn’t imagine Stallone playing this role, although he’s physically capable.
HOMEFRONT is no Rocky or Rambo but it's a strong entry into the action genre that is edge of your seat fun. HOMEFRONT opens November 27, 2013.
INTERVIEW: 'Homefront's' James Franco On Trusting Jason Statham Not To Hit Him
