Bullet to the Head (2012)

Jimmy Bobo: "You're gonna fight or you plan on boring me to death?"

By Walter Hill
With Sylvester Stallone, Sung Kang, Jason Momoa and Sarah Shahi

I heard about Bullet to the Head before it came out. I thought it would be in the vein of the Expendables (2010): entertaining, but not a must-see, and too action filled to be really impressive. However, the casting of Sarah Shahi convinced me to watch it.

Jimmy Bobo is a hitman, but his last job goes wrong and his partner ends up getting killed. While trying to seek out revenge he meets a detective from out of town, Taylor Kwon, and they soon have to team up in order to catch those responsible. Despite Jimmy's hatred for cops and Taylor's duty to arrest Jimmy, they get along fairly well. Their investigation leads them to city officials and dirty cops, as well as Lisa, Jimmy's daughter who is a tattoo artist but helps Jimmy when someone needs medical assistance (read "remove a bullet").

The credits state that it is based on a comic book. That was a good surprise as I feel they sometimes dare to go where normal scripts don't. I quite enjoy the Louisiana settings; it always proves to be a good asset in all the movies I've watched there. The casting is also quite enjoyable, especially Christian Slater's appearance as he wasn't much seen since the 90's.

The story is linear and not original at all. We see an unlikely pair more or less team up, bad guys who get punished in a painful way, etc. There are no real twists or mystery. Some scenes are well done and/or well shot and the Sylvester Stallone voice-over narration is actually quite nice. There aren't many catchy one liners, which is something I feel make action movies a lot better than they usually are--but there were still a few that at least got me smiling. Sarah Shahi was the high point of the movie for me, but yet again, as an L Word (2004) fan, I am quite biased.

I liked: The battle with axes is awesome. The music. Louisiana.

I disliked: Unoriginal and predictable. Nothing that really stands out.

50/100
It's a decent action movie, Stallone is good, a role that fits him and reminds us of his previous films. If you handle the film with no expectations, you can't be disappointed.