November 27th, 2013 
Justin Proper 
Film: Homefront
Director: Gary Fleder
Writers: Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Logan
Starring: Jason Statham, James Franco, Winona Ryder
Action stars cannot be action stars forever. I love my grandparents but the thought of them saving the world from evil is laughable. On a good day they manage to take down a list of chores, not a drug ring or group of terrorists. That is why when it was finally time to make Homefront, Sylvester Stallone got a chance to pass the torch to another great action star, Jason Statham — only instead of a great action movie we got a less than mediocre snoozefest that will surely be forgotten.
When an undercover DEA agent (Statham) takes down a motorcycle gang peddling meth he has to go into witness protection to ensure his family’s safety. After relocating to rural Louisiana everything seems to be going fine. One day after his daughter has an altercation with a bully at school, the bully’s mother (Kate Bosworth) asks for help from her meth cooking brother (James Franco) in scaring the family and letting them know who the badasses of this hick town are. Unbeknownst to everyone, this sets off a chain of events that lead the leader of the motorcycle gang to know where the man who took him down is, and if there’s one thing you know about motorcycle gangs it is that they get their payback.
While this sounds like the setup of a very promising action movie, do not be fooled. Homefront has some action, but for the most part it is incredibly lifeless and boring. While there may be some very awesome fight scenes they are separated by what seemed like years of extraneous exposition and conversations that went on for days. This is not even what bothered me the most about the film. This may be nitpicky, but the range and variance of accents in Homefront was incredibly distracting and, quite frankly, embarrassing. I get that Statham is British, but would it kill him to learn an American accent when he plays an American? On top of that, his daughter had no hint of a Louisiana drawl (nor did half of the cast that were supposedly from this rural LA town). The only person who had a believable accent was Franco and he managed to completely lose it every time he raised his voice.
Do not bother with Homefront unless your Dad really wants to go see it. It is billed as an action movie and while there may be a few exciting and interesting fight scenes, for the most part it is slow and dull. It is Oscar season so do yourself a favor and go see a great film and leave this sub-par flick behind.
Score: D+
Review written by: Justin Proper
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