Bullet to the Head (2012)
Certified: 18
Duration: 91 minutes
Directed by: Walter Hill
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Sung Kang, Sarah Shahi, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jason Momoa, Christian Slater, Jon Seda, Holt McCallany, Brian Van Holt
KRS release

With Rocky Balboa (2006), Rambo (2008) and The Expendables (2010), it seemed that the Hollywood gods had given Sylvester Stallone a second chance at a movie career. However, with Bullet to the Head, it all comes tumbling down.

Physically, Stallone seems to be in tip-top shape but he looks too artificial and detached and it was very hard to take him seriously. Besides, the film lacks charm, inventiveness or solid action.

Jimmy Bobo (Sylvester Stallone) is a New Orleans hit man who is on a job along with his partner Louis Blanchard (Jon Seda). Their latest job is to kill Hank Greely (Holt McCallany), a crooked Washington DC policeman. His investigation on New Orleans mobster Morel (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) has given lots of profits and he wants a share of the pie. When the job is carried out successfully, Jimmy and Louis go to a bar expecting payment, but they are ambushed by Keegan (Jason Momoa), a ruthless murderer who kills Louis and nearly kills Jimmy too.

Jimmy wants to avenge his partner and this leads him to form an unusual and incongruous partnership with Taylor Kwon (Sung Kang), a Washington DC detective. Taylor had been Greely’s partner and wants to close the case on Morel. Taylor is soon wounded and this leads Jimmy to take him to his daughter Lisa (Sarah Shahi), a tattoo artist, for help.

Jimmy and Taylor will soon go on a spree that will bring them face to face with the likes of Baptiste (Christian Slater), an attorney who likes to set up fancy-dress parties, and Ronnie Earl (Brian Van Holt), who had betrayed Jimmy and Louis. Meanwhile, no help is coming from the police who are as corrupt as can be and Keegan is hot on their trail.

Adapted from a French graphic novel, Bullet to the Head is linear in its storytelling and there are no attempts at creating layers or added complexities to the plot or the characters and their motives. It is played out as a 1980s action film, without any of the flash and boisterous attitude of the time. It is a muscular picture as the action that it delivers hits hard, but what is delivered on screen sadly lets the picture down.

There is no connection between Stallone and Kang; it is like seeing two actors acting out their parts in two different pictures and then having them edited into one film.

Slater is simply lost in the movie as he squirrels to and fro, happily organising parties with naked ladies. On the contrary, Momoa is a bulldozer of a figure and he ploughs through the picture with aplomb.

Walter Hill, director of such classic films as The Warriors (1979) and 48 Hrs. (1982) had been absent from the big screen since 2002. His comeback shows little of that directorial strength in providing a roller-coaster rush of cinematic thrills.

Bullet to the Head only made me nostalgic for its main actor and times gone by.