Shootout - Keine Gnade

In New Orleans, the hit men James Bonomo (Sylvester Stallone), a.k.a. Jimmy Bobo, and Louis Blanchard (Jon Seda) execute the dirty cop Hank Greely (Holt McCallany) in a hotel room. But they are betrayed and Louis is stabbed in a bar by the mercenary Keegan (Jason Momoa) while waiting for the payment of the contract. Meanwhile the Washington D.C. police detective Taylor Kwon (Sung Kang) comes to New Orleans to investigate the murder of Greely, who had stolen evidences from the Police Department. Soon he is shot by two dirty detectives but Jimmy saves his life. Jimmy brings Taylor to the shop of his daughter Lisa (Sarah Shahi) and she removes the bullet from his shoulder and nurses him. Taylor and Jimmy form the most unlikely partnership to investigate the crimes and after contacting the intermediate Ronnie Earl (Brian Van Holt) that had hired Jimmy and Louis, they discover a network of corruption formed by the lawyer Marcus Baptiste (Christian Slater) and the entrepreneur Robert Nkomo Morel (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje).

"Bullet to the Head" is the return of the cult director Walter Hill to the direction after six years without making a movie. The story uses many clichés and the double Taylor and Jimmy is identical to other comedies with two different characters forced to work together and having the conventional frictions. But the story and the action are good, the locations in NOLA are wonderful and the music score is excellent. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Alvo Duplo" ("Double Target")

Now i'll admit I'm an action junkie and almost all the movies I review are in this genre. So with that in mind I'm an obvious fan of Stallone and Walter Hill. If you are also you'll like this as he one lines, punches, shoots, explodes and stabs his way through this film. Now the plot is very cliché and predictable which is why I would give it a 6.

However I do enjoy the retro,cheesy 80's feel this movie has. Overall, the film is average but watchable. Thats because of the Stallone/Hill combination and the action throughout. Comparing it to another similar retro action film from an ageing action star in early 2013 (The Last Stand),I felt that the last stand was more fun and enjoyable. But I'd still recommend both films if your a fan of the genre and the actors.

7/10.

In case you can't discern from the title, this is a *very* violent film, so don't be a putz and take your five or six year old kid, like a couple of people did at the Independence, Missouri AMC screening tonight. There are more triple-taps to the head than any film in recent memory, to the point that it becomes rather over the top by the time the film ends All that said, Walter Hill has woven yet another well-paced, engrossing buddy film actioner with a pretty good left hand twist. Stallone plays a weary New Orleans hit-man very convincingly, and with a very wry sense of humor. Were he any more droll, he would have to become a British citizen.

"Bullet" has everything an Action fan loves...really nasty bad guys, impossibly punishing fights, explosions, hot women, and main characters you can actually care something about. The plot isn't suspenseful, but it isn't meant to be, as our heroes go on what for one is a vendetta, and for the other a bumbling police investigation. Indeed, Sung Kang's Washington DC detective seems at times to have the insight of a rock, but Kang is pretty and plays well alongside the grizzled Stallone.

All and all, if you enjoy this sort of film, well...you'll enjoy "Bullet to the Head".

"The guy I just saved is a cop. That's not the usual way I do things but sometimes you gotta abandon your principles and do what's right." James Bonomo (Stallone) is a career criminal with a partner that he trusts. Taylor Kwan (Kang) is a cop with a partner he trusts. When both their partners get killed by the same man they from an alliance to take him down but being on opposite sides of the law means they both have their own way of doing things. I'll open by saying that this movie was pretty much exactly what I expected. There are actors with a wide range of talent and can play almost any role they want. Then there are actors that can't play a wide range but try to and it never turns out well. Then there are actors like Stallone. He knows is limitations and stays within them, he doesn't always make the best movies but at least he doesn't try and do Shakespere. This is a movie that has the feel of an 80's action movie which is what he is best at. Nothing really new or original but it is entertaining. Overall, if you are a Stallone fan then you will like this. I thought it was OK. I give it a B.

This movie plays out exactly like a video game, complete with a Blackberry that feeds objectives and information. The bad guys give up info way too easy. Sung Gang is wooden and completely cliché for the good cop role.

That said, if you can live with the video game flow, its a decent action flick with plenty of violence that warrants the title of the film. Stallone is, well he's Stallone, nothing surprising there. Jason Momoa is decent as the killer. To be honest, he's actually a better actor than the script he is given. You don't (or shouldn't) watch these movies for great acting anyway. It delivers on the action mostly and violence totally. They even threw in a couple nude scenes with no point to the story line just to give it that earlier 80's action movie feel before they all started going PG and PG-13.

I give it a 6 because it was only slightly worse than I expected. Classic action movie that seemed like it might have been scripted for a game before it was scripted for movie.