FILM REVIEW OF "LONE SURVIVOR" (2013)

Mark Wahlberg struggles to stay alive in war-torn Afghanistan throughout "Friday Night Lights" director Peter Berg's "Lone Survivor," (*** OUT OF ****) a heroic but tragic combat chronicle co-starring Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster and Eric Bana. This gritty, profane, but ill-fated secret mission saga about former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell's battlefield exploits qualifies as an entertaining but predictable saga. Basically, this blood, sweat, and tears, mission-gone-awry movie reminded me of Ridley Scott's grueling warfare spectacle "Black Hawk Down." Scott's actioneer dealt with a disastrous mission in Somalia, back in 1993, when U.S. Rangers were dispatched to snatch two warlords out of a town teeming with heavily armed fanatics. They encountered chaos galore and had to fight for their lives. Comparably smaller in scale, "Lone Survivor" lacks the harrowing intensity of "Black Hawk Down." Our desperate "Lone Survivor" hero endures a nightmare-experience that lesser souls would never have survived. Sadly, his three SEAL team unit members caught none of his breaks. Nevertheless, while watching "Lone Survivor," I didn't feel like I was dodging a firestorm of ordnance as I did when I sat through "Black Hawk Down." Despite its two-hour plus length, "Lone Survivor" never bogs down. Although Berg's combat choreography lacks the visceral quality of "Black Hawk Down," the "Lone Survivor" stunts look and sound very physical. Scenes of soldiers plummeting down the sides of craggy mountains made me flinch. Recently, I fell and shattered by right elbow so every time one of the SEALs struck either a rocky outcropping or a tree, I cringed at the sickening sounds. Specifically, Berg doesn't emphasize the predicament that ricocheting bullets posed. If you read the frank and outspoken Luttrell, whose memoir Berg adapted, the SEAL team member wrote about how ricochets could prove as menacing as the shots themselves. Most of the time, the SEALs find themselves trapped in terrain with scant foliage. Meaning, it was doubly difficult for them to hide not only from the flying lead but also ricochets. Unlike Luttrell, Berg doesn't dwell at length on the fatal mistake and its consequences as much as Luttrell's memoir. Instead, Berg winds up depicting the SEALs as honorable men who refused to take the easy way out of a moral quandary.

"Lone Survivor" covers the three days during Operation Red Wing when an elite four-man unit of Navy SEALs set out to capture Taliban chieftain Ahmad Shah (Yousuf Azami of "Crank") in the rugged Hindu Kush Mountains of the Kunar Province. They want Ahmad because he masterminded the murder of 20 American soldiers. Like the disastrous mission in "Black Hawk Down," the "Lone Survivor" heroes are conducting business-as-usual until everything that can go wrong goes horrendously wrong. Similarly, like "Black Hawk Down," "Lone Survivor" derives its narrative from a factual, eyewitness account. During the opening credits, Berg gives us a glimpse at wannabe Navy SEALs negotiating a gauntlet of an obstacle course. Grainy, documentary-style footage of SEALs enduring the worst that you can imagine outside of combat foreshadows the tenacity of our heroes. They can take a licking and keep on ticking. Afterward, we meet the quartet of warriors and enjoy their easy-going camaraderie. Twenty-nine-year old Texas native Marcus Luttrell (Mark Wahlberg of "Ted") is a Hospital Corpsman who has no idea how complicated his life will be on his next mission. Luttrell's friends, Lt. Michael Murphy (Taylor Kitsch of "John Carter"), Gunner's Mate Danny P. Dietz (Emile Hirsch of "Savages"); and Sonar Technician Matthew "Axe" Axelson (Ben Foster of "3:10 to Yuma"), are just as oblivious. Thoughts about home and their loved ones dominate their thoughts. No sooner have they reached their objective than an elderly goat herder and two boys accidentally stumble onto them in the brush. Our heroes capture these Taliban loyalists and take them prisoner. Lieutenant Murphy boils down their options. First, they can execute their hostages. Second, they can leave them tied to trees in the wilderness like snacks for wild animals. Third, they can release them and scrub the mission. Our heroes behave like noble western gunfighters. They decide to turn the shepherd and his sons loose. Luttrell and company believe they can clear out before the enemy show up. Unfortunately, our heroes find themselves suddenly surrounded by an army of Taliban terrorists armed with AK-47 assault rifles with an inexhaustible supply of ammunition. In his memoir, Luttrell compared their predicament to Custer's Last Stand. Afterward, a running gun battle follows with our heroes mowing down terrorists by the dozens. The problem is the Taliban have the SEALs hopelessly outnumbered and our heroes have nowhere to go. Worse, the SEALs have trouble getting a clear signal so they can contact headquarters and summon relief helicopter gunships!

Characterization remains sketchy at best in "Lone Survivor." Indeed, we never gain much insight into the Americans as three dimensional characters. Berg treats the quartet of SEALs as if they were an ensemble so you're not sure initially who is going to buy the farm. No single character lords it over the others in spite of their respective ranks. Not surprisingly, the Americans emerge as sympathetic, but the filmmakers don't demonize the Taliban. Primarily, Berg keeps the villains at arm's length. The Taliban amounts to pugnacious, trigger-happy, dastards. Essentially, they resemble the hordes of Apache Indians in a cavalry western. We know little about them except that they are miserable marksmen, wear too much eye-liner, and live only to slaughter Americans with extreme prejudice. Surprisingly, Berg shuns any geopolitical messages or cultural bias. The sloppy but violent combat sequences will keep you distracted from diatribes from either side. "Lone Survivor" is a good movie, but you won't want to see it more than once.

FILM REVIEW OF ''47 RONIN" (2013)

Ethnocentrism occurs when one culture appropriates something from another culture and then attempts to enhance it.  The latest version of the legendary Genroku Akō incident, the tragic 18^th century Japanese account of samurai warriors avenging their fallen leader, displays all the vestiges of ethnocentrism.  Mind you, the Japanese produced six previous cinematic adaptations about their historic milestone before Hollywood tampered with it.  For the record, those movies were “The 47 Ronin” (1941), “Chûshingura” (1958), “Chushingura” (1962), “The Fall of Ako Castle” (1978), “47 Ronin” (1994) and “The Last Chushingura (2010).  Presumably, Hollywood must have felt that this constituted an ideal opportunity to produce its own spin on this venerable story.  Not surprisingly, Universal Studios has taken considerable liberties with the material.  Not only has the studio embroidered this renowned tale of honor with outlandish supernatural elements, specifically demons and witchcraft, but it also has added a half-breed European supporting character to the yarn.  Presumably, Universal must have felt that attracting an American audience to a $200-million plus film primarily about the Japanese would only recoup its costs if a major American actor got mixed up in it.  Keanu Reeves of “The Matrix” trilogy appears as the improbable white guy who sets the catastrophic events of the Akō vendetta into motion as well as dictates how the Japanese can resolve their dreadful predicament.  Freshman director Carl Rinsch and “Wanted” scenarist Chris Morgan with “Snow White and the Huntsman” scribe Hossein Amini have fashioned a conventional chronicle of samurai versus samurai, with a grim finale that precludes any thought of a sequel.  If you know nothing about the outrageous revisions that the filmmakers have imposed on the most celebrated instance of the samurai code of honor, you will probably enjoy this scenic saga about sword and sorcery a lot more.  Imagine what any important event in American history would emerge as if a Japanese individual interfered with it and you’ll have a good idea about “47 Ronin.”

 “47 Ronin” (** OUT OF ****) takes place in feudal Japan in the 1700s.  Lord Asano (Min Tanaka of “Black Dawn”) of the Ako province adopts a wandering teenager, Kai (Keanu Reeves), who is the son of a British sailor and a Japanese peasant.  The boy’s mother abandoned him, and demons raised him.  Eventually Kai ran away from them and Lord Asano took him in as one of his own.  Kai grew up with Asano’s daughter, Mika (Kô Shibasaki of “One Missed Call”), and the two become romantically attracted to each other.  Meanwhile, since Kai is a half-breed, he cannot serve Lord Asano as a samurai.  Instead, he functions as the equivalent of a scout.  The first major scene shows him slaying a massive beast that resembles an enormous buffalo with tree branches for antlers.  Naturally, another samurai warrior, Yasuno (Masayoshi Haneda of “Emperor”), claims credit for the kill, but Asano’s number one samurai, Ôishi (Hiroyuki Sanada of “The Wolverine”), knows the truth.  Later, Lord Asano welcomes his supreme leader, Shogun Tsunayoshi (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa of “Mortal Combat”), to his palatial estate along with his chief rival, Lord Kira (Tadanobu Asano of “Thor: The Dark World”), from the nearby Nagato province.  The villainous Kira conspires with the aid of a demonic, shape-shifting witch, (Rinko Kikuchi of “Pacific Rim”), to drug Asano into attacking him.  The witch uses a bulbous spider to deliver a drug across Asano’s lips while he is asleep so that he awakens and imagines that Kira is raping his daughter.  Appalled by his own behavior, Asano follows the dictates of the Shogun in committing ritual suicide.  Ôishi blames himself for letting these events transpire, especially after Kai warned him about the witch.  Everybody but Asano and his daughter treats Kai with utter contempt.  After Asano slashes his belly open with a knife, Ôishi completes the ordeal by decapitating his master.  The heartless Shogun banishes all Asano’s samurai who are now designated as ronin.  At the same time, Kira sells Kai into slavery where Kai becomes a highly prized combatant in arena showdowns.  The Shogun commands Mika to marry Kira after mourning the death of her father for a year.  Kira has Ôishi thrown into a dungeon where he spends the next year.  Eventually, after he is released, the vengeance driven Ôishi assembles the remaining samurai and persuades Kai to join them as they set out to deal with the murderous Kira.

Compared with other samurai sages, “47 Ronin” is fairly routine stuff.  The battle sequences lack grandeur, and the sword play is pretty dull.  The massive ritual suicide at the end isn’t exactly what American audiences will enjoy.  Imagine “Star Wars” ending with everybody eviscerating themselves at fade-out and you have a good idea what to expect.  This big-budgeted spectacle also suffers from second-rate special effects.  Most of the sprawling mountain backdrops are clearly computer-generated, while the swirling witch’s dragon looks like something out of a Chinatown carnival.  Presumably, Rinsch and his writers decided to rely on sorcery because nobody knows for certain why Asano attacked his guest in real-life.  The way that Asano is poisoned is reminiscent of how the Japanese girl died at the hands of Ninjas in the James Bond movie “You Only Live Twice.”  In “You Only Live Twice,” a ninja hid in the rafters, dangled a thread above the heroine’s mouth, and dribbled poison down it.  The witch in “47 Ronin” behaves less spectacularly than the witch in “Snow White and the Huntsman” that co-scripter Hossein Amini penned.  The art direction, production design, and cinematography make “47 Ronin” look more impressive than its ersatz plot.  Interestingly enough, this film didn’t impress Japanese audiences, and Universal has already written it off as a financial disaster.  Ultimately, “47 Ronin” qualifies as a tolerable movie with guts but little gusto.

FILM REVIEW OF ''FORCE OF EXECUTION" (2013)

An above-average Los Angeles crime thriller about a power struggle between two rival gangs, “Force of Execution” (**1/2 OUT OF ****) manages to be a predictable but entertaining B-movie actioneer that eschews both romance and sex. Ostensibly, Steven Seagal takes top billing, but newcomer Bren Foster of "War Flowers" handles the heavy lifting.  Apparently, Seagal and Foster constitute co-stars of a sort, with the demographic appeal of both actors covering the 15-to-4o year old audience.  The old will ogle it for Seagal, while the young will undoubtedly identify more with the younger, athletic Foster.  As the feared but respected crime boss Mr. Alexander, Steven Seagal wears a sculpted Van Dyke beard and rules the neighborhood with a sense of violent compassion.  Above all, he is the kind of crime boss who resents being told what to do.  Before he embarked on his criminal career, Alexander refined his art of warfare during his service to the government.  Since then he has parlayed his on-the-job government training to maintain his own criminal empire. As Mr. Alexander's most trusted executioner for 15 years, rugged Bren Foster plays Roman Hurst.  Hurst performs a hit in prison for Mr. Alexander during the first quarter hour of the action.  Based on the duplicitous word of a Judas-minded inmate, Iceman (Ving Rhames of "Pulp Fiction"), Hurst killed the wrong guy. Afterward, Hurst has to fight his way, one guard at a time, out of the prison.  Not only does Hurst admit failure but also he willingly accepts any punishment that Alexander feels appropriate. Alexander turns Hurst over to the African-American gang, and they wield hammers without mercy on his hands. Basically, when they conclude their anatomical retribution, the best that Hurst can do is spiral into alcoholism until the urge to straighten himself and a Mexican witch doctor revitalize him. 

The themes of reformation and rejuvenation pervade “Force of Execution.” "Maximum Conviction" director Keoni Waxman along with "Cold Sweat" scenarist Richard Beattie and freshman scribe Michael Black have enlivened this formulaic crime thriller with the maimed warrior plot.  This plot usually occurs in martial arts movies and westerns.  Roman Hurst becomes a "Django" type hero who has to rehab himself with the help of a Hispanic witch doctor, Jimmy Peanuts (Danny Trejo of the "Machete" movies), who cooks for Mr. Alexander in one of his diners.  The use of scorpions to convert our hero's lax hands into weapons of lethal power seems wholly improbable, but the idea sounds cool and the sight of Trejo fiddling with the critters is neat. The chief problem with "Force of Execution" isn't the action-laden plot with a body count, but the pedestrian dialogue and the shortage of cool Seagal scenes. Every good Seagal movie and some of his bad ones always boast a memorable combat scene where our soft-spoken hero demolishes the opposition with minimal force. “The “Under Siege” movies as well as “The Glimmer Man” exemplify Seagal at his coolest with several spectacular kick ass scenes.  "Force of Execution" lacks those cool scenes.  Roman Hurst has some nice fights that generate terrific velocity.  He specializes in a spinning kick like Jean-Claude Van Damme, but Hurst doesn't flaunt much personality in his characterization. Grim, tough, resourceful, he appears to be channeling Daniel Craig, but he needs to develop a personality.  It is like having a stunt man play a leading role.  Nothing really makes him sympathetic.  His miraculous recovery is difficult to accept.

The thesping in "Force Execution" is okay. Trejo gives the most charismatic performance as a down-to-earth short order cook. He doesn't play his usual tough-guy type snd he doesn't shed his shirt to display his heavily tattooed physique. He qualifies as the most likable character in the action, while Jenny Gabrielle is both pretty and vulnerable as Karen. She plays the blond waitress & cashier at Alexander's protected restaurant who encounters trouble along the way. Bren Foster has a dynamic physical presence, while Seagal essentially plays an amoral but principled criminal who expects, deserves, and gives respect. Ultimately, at fadeout, he realizes the error of his ways and reforms himself. You don’t often see Seagal play a character who makes mistakes.  Ving Rhames makes a menacing antagonist who challenges our hero and tries to take over his empire by force. The Spartan combat sequences are helmed with skill. The typical Steven Seagal fan should enjoy the experience of watching "Force of Execution." Waxman doesn't let the film wear out its welcome. This 99 minute melodrama doesn’t rank as top-notch Seagal, but those minutes won’t feel like they were stolen from you.

FILM REVIEW OF ''EMPIRE STATE" (2013)

“Empire State” (** OUT OF ****) qualifies as an interesting but mediocre armored car company heist epic.  Ostensibly, “Fighting” director Dito Montiel and “Breach” scenarist Adam Mazer failed to take advantage of a fantastic opportunity to make a first class caper film.  The real-life incident itself constituted something of a landmark in crime annuals.  According to the Associated Press, the $11-million robbery of the Sentry Armored Car amounted to “the largest cash robbery in U.S. history.”  Furthermore, the AP pointed out this robbery surpassed the December 1978 robbery of $5.8 million in cash and jewelry taken by thieves from the Lufthansa cargo area at Kennedy International Airport.  Martin Scorsese immortalized the Lufthansa heist in his crime magnum opus “Goodfellas” with Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta.  Meantime, Montiel assembled an enviable cast including Liam Hemsworth, Michael Angarano, Dwayne Johnson, Emma Roberts, Paul Ben-Victor, Michael Rispoli, and Roger Guenveur Smith.  “Empire State” generates sufficient atmosphere, but the plot is curiously lackluster.  Montiel and Mazer neither made a semi-historical crime reconstruction (the loot hasn’t been recovered) or a fictional counterpoint to it exploiting history as a jumping off point. 

Contemporary crime thrillers often implicate audiences because we are rooting for the charismatic perpetrators.  Initially, the protagonist, Chris Potamitis (Liam Hemsworth of “The Hunger Games”), wins our sympathy for three reasons.  First, he cannot land a job with the NYPD owing to a penny-ante marijuana arrest at a rock concert years ago.  Second, his Greek-born father, Tommy (Paul Ben-Victor of “True Romance”), loses his blue-collar job as a janitor after a quarrel in the toilet of a local bar with the owner.  Third, Chris is outraged by the cavalier treatment of a fellow employee at an armored car company days after he is hired as a guard.  No sooner has our hero gotten a job with the Empire Armored Car Company than he watches in horror as his friendly mentor, Tony (Michael Rispoli of “Pain & Gain”), dies during a botched robbery attempt.  Tony’s assailant shoots the family man several times in the stomach during a struggle.  Earlier, Tony ridiculed his employer’s slipshod security measures.  He showed Chris how easy it would be to steal from the company vault.  Tony explains that the owners never count the money after they have stashed on pallets in their vault with a harmless German Sheppard prowling the premises.  Furthermore, he reveals that the owners have been known to skim the money entrusted to them.  Chris is astonished at the sight of $25 million in money bags scattered haphazardly in the vault.  Later, after Tony dies, the company welshes on its promise to pay $50-thousand his widow.  Instead, as Chris learns afterward, they have paid her a measly $5-thousand.  Like a modern-day Robin Hood, Chris steals enough loot from the company to pay off the widow.  

At this point, Chris makes several mistakes. First, he flaunts his haul to an arrogant, conceited childhood pal, Eddie (Michael Angarano of “Almost Famous”), who has an unfortunate habit of shooting off his mouth..  Eddie gives new meaning to “loose lips sinking ships.”  Chris and Eddie blow the rest of the loot that our hero stole on booze and babes.  Loquacious Eddie babbles to a couple of low-level street hooligans from the neighborhood.  The temptation of easy money is too much for them to pass up.  Second, Chris loses our sympathy when he agrees to rob the company.  He is giving into his own greed with no other reason that avarice itself.  Ironically, the thugs in a van who tried to rob Empire earlier now attempt to break into the Empire facility one evening.  This unexpected turn of events takes Chris by surprise.  Eddie and his hooligan friends were planning to knock off the place at the same time.  Previously, when these thugs killed Tony and shot up Chris’s bullet-proof vest, the NYPD dispatched Detective Ransome (Dwayne Johnson of “Pain & Gain”) to investigate.  Ransome and his partner show up again when the thugs hit Empire and a small gunfight ensues with Chris entering the fray at the last minute.  He manages to kill one of the thugs as the latter was about to ice Ransome.  Chris basks in brief fame in the local press, but Eddie goads him to take advantage of the Empire’s slack security.  

The robbery that follows shows Chris in an unsavory light.  Eddie smashes his way through the ceiling and Chris coaches him about how to wear his apparel so that a security camera will not record his face.  Eventually, Eddie has to smash his gun over Chris’s head to make it look like Chris was the victim rather than the mastermind of the robbery.  Naturally, Ransome is back on the case and keeping tabs on our hero.  Eddie and his mobster pal get into trouble and the FBI enter the case.  It is only a matter of time before Eddie goes so berserk that Chris’s father Tommy intervenes and the NYPD arrest everybody, but the money is never found.  “Empire State” implies that the loot is hidden in a statue that Chris gave his mother.  Nevertheless, nobody ever reaps the rewards of the robbery.  Ironically, Chris Potamitis served as a co-producer on “Empire State.”  He served a brief sentence for his involvement in the crime.  

Clocking in at 94 minutes, “Empire State” generates neither enough urgency nor sufficient suspense.  The hero degenerates from a Robin Hood to a hopeless moron.  Dwayne Johnson shows up 22 minutes into the action then checks out and returns another twenty minutes or so later but lurks for the most part on the periphery.  Emma Roberts plays a restaurant waitress and appears to be Chris’ quasi-love interest, but the sparks never fly between them.  The shoot-out at Empire Armored is noisy but never thrilling.  The worst thing about “Empire State” is that Montiel had everything necessary to make a classic heist caper.  Mazer’s screenplay wavers between a Robin Hood crime thriller where the underdogs triumph over a corrupt business to a comedy of errors where idiots allow their own stupidity and greed undermine them.  “Empire State” boasts polished production values, a solid cast, and historic precedent, but it shoots itself in the foot with its sloppy approach to its subject matter.  This is a deplorably missed opportunity for everybody connected with this movie.

FILM REVIEW OF ''HOMEFRONT" (2013)

Don’t let the title of the latest Jason Statham thriller “Homefront” (*** OUT OF ****) deceive you.  This is no soap opera about life in the boondocks.  “Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead” director Gary Fleder and “Cobra” scenarist Sylvester Stallone should have entitled it “Hell On A Bayou.”  This exciting but formulaic revenge saga pits a retired DEA Agent against a murderous bunch of bikers and rednecks who resemble the hellions in the “Sons of Anarchy” television series.  Naturally, Statham plays the conscientious DEA Agent who witnessed a gross miscarriage of justice that his superior defends as ‘protocol.’  After an explosive drug bust at a New Orleans’ nightclub, our undercover hero’s brothers-in-blue mow down a clueless biker in a fusillade of gunfire.  Apparently, they suspected that the poor slob was reaching for a concealed weapon during a stand-off.  The blood-splattered experience sickened our protagonist enough that he resigned from the agency and settled down in a two-bit Louisiana town to raise his young daughter.  While he wants to put as much distance between his past as he can, our hero doesn’t realize that escaping his bullet-riddled past is easier said than done.  Basically, “Homefront” shares a lot in common with a witness relocation thriller, except the hero here is a cop rather than an eye-witness.  Stallone adapted Chuck Logan’s novel, but the filmmakers have altered the setting from Minnesota to Louisiana.  A former Vietnam veteran, Logan has published eight novels about his protagonist Phil Broker, and “Homefront” appeared in print back in 2009.  As it turns out, “Homefront” provides Statham with an ideal vehicle, and its rural setting and dastardly villains have the flavor of an Elmore Leonard novel.  Co-stars James Franco, Winona Ryder, Clancy Brown, Kate Bosworth, and Frank Grillo constitute a first-class cast for this gritty, hard-boiled, methamphetamine melodrama.

Everything goes wrong for our hero when his nine-year old daughter Maddy (newcomer Izabela Vidovic) picks on the wrong bully at her elementary school.  Fat Teddy Klum (Austin Craig) not only steals Maddy’s baseball cap, but he also terrorizes the willowy little darling on the playground.  Maddy warns Teddy twice to hand her cap back, but Teddy chuckles contemptuously at the defiant little waif.  Imagine Teddy’s surprise when Maddy socks him in the snout and knocks him on his obese butt!  Phil Broker (Jason Statham of “Safe”) is remodeling a house with his African-American partner Teedo (Omar Benson Miller of “8 Mile”) when he receives a call from the Rayville Elementary School.  School psychologist Susan Hetch (Rachelle Lefevre of “Twilight”) briefs Broker about the incident, and Sheriff Keith Rodrigue (Clancy Brown of “Highlander”) struggles to keep Teddy’s mom Cassie Bodine Klum (Kate Bosworth of “Straw Dogs”) off Broker’s back.  When she cannot slap Broker around, Cassie incites her husband Jimmy (Marcus Hester of “Lawless”) to rough him up.  Broker puts Jimmy out of action with the ease of a kung fu master, and the sheriff wonders where our hero got his training.  Later, Cassie resorts to her scumbag brother, Gator (James Franco of “Spring Breakers”), to take care of Broker.  Teedo warns Broker that Gator operates a local meth factory and discourages any competitors by informing on them to Sheriff Rodrigue.  Gator burglarizes Broker’s remote house in the middle of the woods and stumbles upon Broker’s files from his DEA days.  Furthermore, he discovers Broker was the anonymous snitch that sent Outcast motorcycle gang member Danny T Turrie (Chuck Zito of “Carlito’s Way”) to prison and put the first of the 47 bullets into Danny’s worthless son Jojo (Linds Edwards) on the street in New Orleans.  Gator concocts a hare-brained scheme with low-life waitress Sheryl Marie Mott (Winona Ryder of “Heathers”) to alert the Outcasts about Broker’s whereabouts.  Gator dreams in his naive mind that the Outcasts will repay him for his friendly little tip by helping him distribute his meth.  Outcast motorcycle chieftain Cyrus Hanks (Frank Grillo of “Disconnect”) and his best bangers roll into Rayville with payback on their brains. Meanwhile, our hero realizes that he is living in a land where feuding is a way of life.  At the last minute, after Gator has stolen Maddy’s pet kitten, Broker smells the stench of murder in the air and tries to clear out.  Unfortunately, our hero doesn’t get far before he discovers that there is too much lead in the air for him to hightail it without jeopardizing his daughter’s life.  

Mind you, “Homefront” would be just another entertaining but predictable shoot’em up, but director Gary Fleder has assembled a knock-out cast of celebrity talent and orchestrated some crowd pleasing action scenes.  James Franco plays Statham’s grinning redneck adversary with gusto galore.  At one point, he chides Phil Broker because our hero doesn’t “smell the wood burning” and “cannot connect the dots.”  Winona Ryder gives an electrifying performance as Gator’s scummy ex-convict accomplice who served time for smuggling narcotics into Angola Prison.  Topping both Franco and Ryder is sexy Kate Bosworth of “Straw Dogs” and “Blue Crush” as a housewife hooked on meth who ridicules her husband into doing what she cannot.  Seasoned character actor Clancy Brown emerges from the background a corrupt local sheriff who behaves with more discretion than the usual paid-off politician.  Essentially, nobody gives a bad performance in “Homefront,” and the children are incredibly convincing, too.  Of course, Fleder and Stallone shoot the works, and Statham displays his usual physical prowess.  Basically, if you enjoy watching the “Transporter” kick the crap out of his antagonists after they threaten his daughter, you’ll enjoy “Homefront.”  The close encounter combat sequence between our hero and two thugs at a local gas station is hilariously violent.  Statham is quickly turning into the new Steven Segal with the effortless aplomb with which he dispatches his opponents.  Dutch lenser Theo van de Sande’s cinematography of the swampy Louisiana locations is simply gorgeous; Sande shot the Wesley Snipes vampire opus “Blade.”  Clocking in at a nimble 100 minutes, “Homefront” never wears out its welcome.

FILM REVIEW OF "DELIVERY MAN" (2013)

Funny man Vince Vaughn has made a career out of playing obnoxious, motor-mouthed, louts in raucous comedies like “The Wedding Crashers,” “Couples Retreat,” “The Internship,” “Old School,” “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story,” and “The Watch.”  In his latest laffer “Delivery Man,” he doesn’t portray another obnoxious, motor-mouthed, lout.  Instead, he plays a sympathetic, soft-spoken, slacker.  Subdued as he is in writer & director Ken Scott’s remake of his own French-Canadian film “Starbuck” (2011), Vaughn is cast as a middle-aged, ne’er-do-well, oddball who scraped together a pile of dough during his youth from providing sperm donations for a fertility clinic.  The premise of “Delivery Man” is singular in its novelty.  No other comedy that I can recall has ever employed this plot.  In an administrative blunder of nightmarish proportions, the fertility clinic relied almost predominantly on our protagonist’s sperm, and the 693 deposits that he banked with them bred 533 children!  Two decades later, the progeny insist on meeting their papa, and they challenge our humble hero in court to divulge his identity.  As rude, crude, and lewd as “Delivery Man” (**** OUT OF ****) must sound, this sentimental, feel-good, PG-13, pleasantry is not cut from the same cloth as most of Vaughn’s characteristic, lowest common denominator, slapstick farces.  Incredibly enough, in a season celebrating super-heroic exploits like “Thor: The Dark World” and feats of empowered femininity like the incendiary “The Hunger Games” sequel “Catching Fire,” “Delivery Man” focuses on down-to-earth, flesh-and-blood characters who live quiet lives and blend into the background.  A conspicuous loser in virtually every facet of his life, our sperm donor extraordinaire has no idea that he has sired so many offspring.  

David Wozniak (Vince Vaughn of “Four Christmases”) drives a meat delivery truck for Wozniak & Sons, his immigrant father’s business in New York City.  Without a doubt, David is the slowest delivery man on his papa’s payroll.  Not only is he a magnet for uniformed NYPD cops writing parking citations, but also he has landed on the wrong side of ruthless loan sharks.  He is over his head in debt to these hooligans for $80-thousand.  Nevertheless, everybody loves David, including his cute girlfriend, Emma (Cobie Smulders of “Safe Haven”), who happens to be one of New York City’s finest.  Before our ill-fated protagonist learns about his woes from the fertility clinic, he discovers that Emma is pregnant.  She adores David, but isn’t entirely sure that he would make an adequate breadwinner.  She agrees to give David a chance but warns him that he will remain on probation until she decides otherwise.  

Sadly, David has struggled over the years with various get-rich-quick schemes.  Those pie-in-the-sky ideas have yielded little in the way of consequence.  As the action unfolds, David has just scrapped his latest inspiration—cultivating marijuana hydroponically—when he learns about Emma’s pregnancy.  Emma has always wondered why David has never invited her to his cramped man cave where he tries to grow pot.  While David is worrying about his woes with Emma, he finds out that 142 offspring from the fertility clinic have embarked on a class-action lawsuit to smoke him out into the open.  When our hero submitted his sperm to the clinic back in the day, he signed a confidentially contract.  David’s best friend and sometime attorney Brett (Chris Pratt of “Moneyball”) advises him to lay low.  Brett has four children of his own and advises David to steer clear of his children.  David has never distinguished himself with his brilliance.  He takes a packet from Brett that contains profiles of the 142 children.  Mind you, every one of David’s biologically sired children is grown-up.  Despite Brett’s warnings to not peruse the profiles, David does and hatches a bizarre scheme to act as their guardian angels.  Like a guardian angel, he helps out his offspring without letting them know that he has a stake in their lives.  Initially, he attends a basketball game where one son is playing and behaves like a one-man cheerleading squad.  In another instance, he stands in for a barista so the guy can attend a casting call for actors.  Predictably, inept as David is, he all but destroys the coffee shop as he tries to perform a good deed.  Later, he rescues a daughter as she is about to plunge herself into the nightmare of heroin addiction.  Several lesser examples occur with David berating wolves whistling at a sexy daughter, assisting a drunken son with a cab, and urging bystanders to ante up contributions for a sidewalk musician.  Meanwhile, Brett tries to concoct a strategy that will serve them well in court.  Brett is a woebegone underdog himself.  Indeed, his own motherassured him long ago that he is no Perry Mason.  When Brett tries out his courtroom defense approach on his four children, they question his competence as an attorney!

Scott and Québec-born, co-scenarist Martin Petit never miss a chance to be multi-culturally correct.  As it turns out, the women who availed themselves of David’s prolific sperm donations were not exclusively white.  David begat a few African-Americans, too.  Furthermore, some of his grown-up brood preferred to explore alternate lifestyles.  At least one of them is handicapped both mentally and physically.  The awkward scenes between David and his crippled son are the stuff of tearjerkers.  A lesser movie would have depicted a breakthrough with the handicapped guy acknowledging his biological father.  Of course, contrived as it is, “Delivery Man” doesn’t let our hero get off the hook.  Just when it appears like David’s anonymity will remain intact, everything comes crashing down.  Cynically, with the Thanksgiving holidays at hand, you could say that Touchstone Pictures, a division of Disney Studios, couldn’t have chosen a better time to release this art-house gem.  Scott’s comedy celebrates fatherhood in general and presents a rainbow of situations in particular where parental love triumphs over adversity.  “Delivery Man” qualifies as a refreshing change-of-pace for Vince Vaughn.