![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.moviemansguide.com\/images\/main\/logos\/universal-sm.jpg\" "\\"Homefront")
Homefront<\/i><\/b> isn\u2019t a great film yet still more than watchable fare especially for Statham who is on top of his game even if his character is more or less the same as we\u2019ve seen before. The action is half-decent but the fights are tough and well done helping one ignore a messy plot and two-dimensional characters played by actors who probably deserved better.<\/p>\n
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Homefront<\/span> Genre(s): <\/b>Action, Crime, Drama MOVIE INFO: Theatrical Release Date: <\/b>November 27, 2013<\/p>\n DISC INFO: Audio: <\/b>English (DTS-HD MA 5.1) <\/p>\n A Jason Statham movie rarely verges from the formula of the quiet tough guy whose life gets uprooted to some plot device. You\u2019ve seen this in the The Transporter<\/i> franchise, Crank 1 & 2<\/i>, The Mechanic<\/i> and Parker<\/i>. Some of these are fluff action pieces while others take themselves a bit too seriously and aren\u2019t a whole lot of fun to watch; his latest, Homefront<\/i><\/b>, attempts to blend the two with some serious drama, where his daughter is in danger, with the fun and oft awesome fight scenes. Hardly perfect, I actually enjoyed this outing even if Statham more or less plays the same characters we\u2019ve seen countless times in the past.<\/p>\n Homefront<\/i><\/b>, which was conceived by Sylvester Stallone \u2013 based on a novel by Chuck Logan \u2013 as a Rambo<\/i> movie eons ago, languished in development hell before being picked up as a Statham action vehicle. Here Statham plays Phil Broker, a former undercover DEA agent who, in the film\u2019s prologue, had taken down a major meth dealer, \u201cDanny T\u201d (CHUCK ZITO), which resulted in said dealer\u2019s son being killed in a blaze of bullets.<\/p>\n With his cover blown, Broker and his precocious, street-fighter prowess daughter Maddy (IZABELA VIDOVIC), and like any good cinema daughter, as previously seen in Sleepless in Seattle<\/i>, wants nothing more than for her dad to get a girlfriend and in this movie, it\u2019s school psychologist Susan Hetch (RACHELLE LEFEVRE) though save for a couple of scenes, this plot line and character is dropped; there was no purpose for her and could\u2019ve been cut and it would not have been missed, though Ms. Lefevre is an attractive woman so nothing wrong with some eye-candy.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Broker hasn\u2019t exactly ingratiated himself in the small hick town when he takes down a belligerent father whose son had been picking on and got beaten up by Maddy earlier. This ticks off the mother (KATE BOSWORTH) who enlists her meth maker\/dealer brother Gator (JAMES FRANCO) to exact revenge for Broker\u2019s actions. This puts Broker on the town sheriff\u2019s (CLANCY BROWN) radar and being pals with Gator, might not be the best thing.<\/p>\n After Broker beats the living crap out of two thugs, Gator does some reconnaissance work breaking into Broker\u2019s home, stealing the daughter\u2019s favorite toy and her kitten (bastard!!!) and doing some snooping in a crawl space underneath the plantation home, finds Broker\u2019s files from his days in the DEA including his alias and old photo with a ridiculous hair. Now, why would a paranoid guy just wanting to live the quiet life would keep such files close by? Hell if I know, but Gator sure has hell puts it to good use to leverage a larger distribution for his meth by giving the info, through girlfriend and fellow meth maker Sheryl (WINONA RYDER), to Danny T of course still out for blood.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a battle of wills between the former agent who kicks ass versus an overconfident and overinflated meth dealer coming to a head and, while one knows where the plot is going from the prologue on, the action and fight scenes were well choreographed giving impact with each brutal punch making use of its R-rating. It\u2019s what one would expect from a Jason Statham movie.<\/p>\n The performances are all fairly standard from Statham who once again plays the same type of character we\u2019ve seen numerous times before but unlike some, he has great charisma that no matter how poor the script may be, he often can overcome any imperfections in the story (I include the Transporter<\/i> sequels in that). Izabela Vidovic as the daughter isn\u2019t overly annoying but she does come close to the line of annoyance that I find movie kids play a prominent role. Here she has that obnoxious precociousness only seen in film and her insistence on her father dating the teacher just didn\u2019t quite seem right. James Franco serves well enough in the placeholder of what is supposed to be the villain and he plays it right, though the role doesn\u2019t have much to it.<\/p>\n In regards to the supporting cast, it\u2019s an impressive group that includes Winona Ryder, a nearly unrecognizable Kate Bosworth done-up in trailer trash\/meth-head style and Clancy Brown is fun seeing as the sheriff that I wish he\u2019d get more prominent roles. None are of particularly noteworthy in their performances but Ryder has a couple good scenes.<\/p>\n Homefront<\/i><\/b> was helmed by Gary Fleder whose career has neither been mired in travesty nor garnered high praise as seen in movies like Kiss the Girls<\/i>, Don\u2019t Say a Word<\/i>, Runaway Jury<\/i> and even Impostor<\/i>. Nothing amazing but nothing terrible, just middle of the road and that\u2019s where this film lands as a serviceable Statham action vehicle, nothing more and nothing less.<\/p>\n This release does come with a semi-glossy slip cover<\/b>. Inside the case contains a standard DVD Copy<\/span><\/b> and an authorization code for the UltraViolet<\/span><\/b> and\/or iTunes Digital Copy<\/span><\/b>.<\/p>\n Standoff (2:41; HD)<\/span><\/b> is an EPK featurette with general cast\/crew sound bites.<\/p>\n Deleted Scenes (8:38; HD)<\/span><\/b> \u2013 We get a few scenes excised mostly for pacing issues but there is an alternate ending of sorts where we get closure of the teacher and Phil and Maddy moving out of town.<\/p>\n Previews<\/b> \u2013 Sabotage<\/i>, Rush<\/i>, The Best Man Holiday<\/i>, 47 Ronin<\/i>, Ride Along<\/i><\/p>\n Homefront<\/i><\/b> arrives on Blu-ray presented in its original 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio and in 1080p high-definition. The picture, filmed digitally on the Arri Alexa camera, is brilliant in HD with excellent detail levels throughout, bright colors during daylight scenes and starkness in the night shots which shows flaws like artifacts and pixilation.<\/p>\n The movie includes a vigorous 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio taking advantage of the numerous third act explosions and gunplay, which make fine use of the front and rear channels, while also keeping dialogue levels from the center channel nice and clear.<\/p>\n Overall, Homefront<\/i><\/b> isn\u2019t a great film yet still more than watchable fare especially for Statham who is on top of his game even if his character is more or less the same as we\u2019ve seen before. The action is half-decent but the fights are tough and well done helping one ignore a messy plot, including a romantic angle that is dropped completely, and two-dimensional characters played by actors who probably deserved better. The Blu-ray released by Universal is thin on features but both the audio and video transfers are top notch.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n The Movieman Homefront isn\u2019t a great film yet still more than watchable fare especially for Statham who is on top of his game even if his character is more or less the same as we\u2019ve seen before. The action is half-decent but the fights are tough and well done helping one ignore a messy plot and two-dimensional … Continue reading “Homefront Blu-ray Review”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2051,2100,511,874,505],"class_list":["post-6914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blurayreviews","tag-clancy-brown","tag-james-franco","tag-jason-statham","tag-kate-bosworth","tag-winona-ryder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6914"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27630,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914\/revisions\/27630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n(2013)<\/strong><\/p>\n
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\nUniversal | R \u2013 101 min. \u2013 $34.98 | March 11, 2014<\/p>\n\n\n
\n ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.moviemansguide.com\/images\/reviews\/2014\/homefront-bd.jpg\" "\\"Buy")
<\/a><\/td>\n <\/p>\n
\n<\/span>Directed by: <\/b>Gary Fleder
\nWriter(s): <\/b>Chuck Logan (novel); Sylvester Stallone (screenplay)
\nCast: <\/b>Jason Statham, James Franco, Winona Ryder, Kate Bosworth, Izabela Vidovic<\/p>\n
\n<\/span>Features: <\/b>Featurette, Deleted Scenes, DVD Copy, Digital Copy
\nNumber of Discs: <\/b>2<\/p>\n
\nVideo: <\/b>1080p\/Widescreen 2.40Subtitles: <\/b>English SDH, French, Spanish
\nDisc Size: <\/b>31.2 GB
\nCodec: <\/b>MPEG-4 AVC
\nRegion(s): <\/strong>A, B, C (untested)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/p>\nTHE MOVIE<\/strong> \u2013 3.75\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/p>\nSPECIAL FEATURES \u2013 1.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/p>\nVIDEO \u2013 5.0\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/p>\nAUDIO \u2013 4.75\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/p>\nOVERALL \u2013 3.75\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n<\/i>Published: <\/b>03\/06\/2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"