Before relocating to a quiet Louisiana town with his daughter Maddy (Izabela Vidovic), Phil Broker (Jason Statham) worked undercover in a crystal meth-making and dealing biker gang, until he helped the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) bust the gang, and get its leader Danny (Chuck Zito) arrested.

10-year-old Maddy, as the new kid in school gets picked on by the schoolyard bully – Cassie Bodine’s (Kate Bosworth) son, but manages to retaliate by punching him out. His infuriated mum, Bodine, a redhead meth-addict, turns to her drug-dealing brother, Gator (James Franco) to scare Broker and his girl to not mess with them again. But while snooping around for Broker’s news, Gator discovers that he was an undercover agent and the sociopath is now doubly keen to tear him down.

Using the secrets he’s just unearthed about the new town arrival, Gator hatches a plan to win favors among the bigger-time drug dealers (Broker’s former enemies) and hopefully advance his own standing. He later brings in his former drug-dealer girlfriend Sheryl (Winona Ryder) to contact Danny, who swore to kill Broker following the death of his son during the shootout with DEA years ago.

It doesn’t take Broker long to realize he’s picked the wrong town to start afresh. As a bloodthirsty pack of crazed killers start to charge at him, he must confront the inevitable violent showdown singlehandedly, while trying to protect his daughter.

Following the success of The Expendablesin 2010, viewers may be expecting more from 70s and 80s action star, Sylvester Stallone, its director-writer-lead, who is also the screenwriter of this film, starring his co-star.

Unfortunately, the thrilling spectacle of the man-to-man matches in most sequences failed to save the characters’ lack of depth and progression throughout the film. Statham’s character is pretty much two-dimensional, and the script didn’t help by giving him little else to do but fight and furrow his brow.

Considering the above average cast, the film could‘ve done much more. Franco’s villainous role seemed watered-down compared to his impressive performance as Alien in crime-spree film – Spring Breakers, which bagged him the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Although Ryder is underserved by her flimsy role, she managed to strut in with humor and her performance as Franco’s confused lackey while not magnetic is adequate.

Surprisingly, Bosworth made the most impact as a junkie, perfecting her role as a trailer trash mom even as constant profanities spew from her mouth throughout the film, you leave convinced that she’s an unsympathetic and selfish meth-addict.

The moving father-daughter relationship between Statham and Vidovic may be the 1 redeeming value of this film. Director Gary Fleder managed to portray a heartwarming connection between the 2 without going down the road of a typical widower-dad cliché.

Homefront, based on Chuck Logan’s crime novel, may not be the best kick-ass thriller, but it will do for you what a good shot of double espresso would.

Rating: 3/5
Release date: Dec 5
Runtime: 100 minutes
Language: English
Censorship rating: M18
Genre: Action/Crime/Thriller
Director: Gary Fleder
Main actors: Jason Statham, James Franco, Winona Ryder, Kate Bosworth