Homefront

After failing in a mission, a DEA agent decides to go to a small town with his nine-year-old daughter to live a peaceful life. However, things don't go as planned when he encounters a meth drug lord.

'Homefront' came out originally in 2013, but I was introduced to it through flicking through a series of movie clips on Facebook, it was only a 10-minute clip but from what I saw, it looked exciting, even with the high pitched voices to avoid the copyright! Surprisingly though, I hadn't heard of this film before, essentially it is a typical Jason Statham film, plenty of action and plenty of shootouts but what's interesting about this film is how the characters and story are surprisingly interesting, and worth investing in. The main question is, is this a typical Statham film, or does it diverge from that theme? Here are my thoughts.

I'll be honest, the film starts off in a very typical fashion of this genre of film, long panning shots at night over a city with tense and fast-paced audio to provide a gripping and intense beginning to the film, although we expect a similar introduction to this, it is still effective and definitely helped to provide an immersive and exciting start to the film. Despite this, it really helps to engross us not only in what is happening in the film but also provides a subtle introduction and history of the main character - Phil Broker (Jason Statham) through an exciting drug bust whilst undercover. Not only are the starting scenes to the film during the bust and shootout exciting but they also provide a unique and dramatic entrance for the story of the film, because it helps to grip us from the beginning. A lot of these types of films generally spend too long introducing the themes and characters of the story, but this film doesn't fall for that trap, instead, it spends its time investing into the storyline and the excitement value it provides.

As you would expect, the film delves between two genres, action and thriller. It manages to switch between these really nicely, whilst encompassing a great and genuinely interesting set of characters. I'll get onto that a little later though, what the film includes is a great series of action scenes, the film has a lot of shootout scenes, but not too much which is refreshing. It focuses more on individual scenes where Phil is attacked in one way or another - whether this is at a petrol station, a car park or in a warehouse and each of these scenes offers a unique feeling to it. It doesn't follow typical conventions in terms of gunfights or the characters trying to act tough, surprisingly here Phil is the pacifist here, trying to downplay threats or violence until he has to.

These action scenes are great though, not only are they really fast-paced but they are also really intense, it's interesting because they never just jump into a fight, there is always a stage of a build-up where we expect a fight, but it is being built up. The film never tries to hide this fact that there will be a fight, it just uses the time beforehand to build them up in order to make them feel much more powerful as well as giving us time to become excited and engaged with what is going on. As I said, there are a variety of different types of fights in this film, but they all follow a similar pattern, not that it's a bad thing though because they follow an effective method of creating an exciting feeling for us.

The overall storyline is great here, not only in its introduction but how it tells the stories of the characters. Right from the beginning of the film, it introduces us to the storyline, so we are always essentially engrossed in the events of the film, this method also helps to make the storyline feel simple and straightforward and therefore has no problems with a lack of detail or information. As well as this, the story just generally makes a lot of sense, it follows a fairly conventional flow of how there is peace, then this is disrupted although from this disruption, the film and characters never really feel the same and that is conveyed very nicely to us through their emotions. I really enjoyed the story of this film though, not just because it was such an immersive experience but also because it is genuinely easy to follow and understand what is going on - these two combined help to create a really powerful and enjoyable story, which doesn’t drag on too long.

At first glance most Jason Statham movies are pretty much about the same thing. Some quiet, keep to himself guy finds himself using exceptional fighting skills against the bad guys. Turns our he's usually the fastest gun, in this case fist in the west. Statham is definitely in his element. The overall roster of characters are great too, not only do the frontline characters each have an important purpose to the film but they also add a lot of authenticity and emotion into the film - the addition of Phil's dead wife is also important to the story because it adds a lot of emotional value to both Phil and Maddy, his daughter. This part of the story isn't really relevant or integral to the story, but it certainly helps to give the characters a much better and realistic set of emotions. Seeing characters upset and their emotions transitioning (such as when they are riding horses) feels really realistic, and definitely gives the films characters purpose and authenticity, they are definitely created in a way which makes them worth investing in. The film is also laid out in a way which helps to prevent scenes or parts of the film becoming too long, switches in character motives, fights or new characters are all ways in which the film aims to balance excitement with entertainment, and it manages this well, resulting in an engaging and enjoyable film.

'Homefront' came out originally in 2013, but I was introduced to it through flicking through a series of movie clips on Facebook, it was only a 10-minute clip but from what I saw, it looked exciting, even with the high pitched voices to avoid the copyright! Surprisingly though, I hadn't heard of this film before, essentially it is a typical Jason Statham film, plenty of action and plenty of shootouts but what's interesting about this film is how the characters and story are surprisingly interesting and worth investing in. The main question is, is this a typical Statham film, or does it diverge from that theme? Here are my thoughts. of the story isn't really relevant or integral to the story, but it certainly helps to give the characters a much better and realistic set of emotions. Seeing characters upset and their emotions transitioning (such as when they are riding horses) feels really realistic, and definitely gives the characters of the film purpose and authenticity, they are definitely created in a way which makes them worth investing in. The film is also laid out in a way which helps to prevent scenes or parts of the film becoming too long, switches in character motives, fights or new characters are all ways in which the film aims to balance excitement with entertainment, and it manages this well, resulting in an engaging and enjoyable film. you can tell this by how he speaks, acts and responds to the various scenarios of the film. This is a Jason Statham movie but a strong supporting cast of Franco and Zito steal the show as both small-time and big-time antagonists. Action fans will enjoy this latest blend of action and drama from the last true action star of this genre. The moments between Statham and newcomer Izabela Vidovic are nice to watch as their chemistry as father and daughter really works. Vidovic also gives a very good performance as Maddy, she portrays a tough young girl well, but plays the emotional moments when discussing her deceased mother very well.

Albeit the great execution of the storyline, the film also delves into the criminal underworld and theme of gangs - it adds a little bit of unpredictability to the film whilst helping to add in an exciting feeling to the film. It also helps to provide the film with an interesting twist because it adds in something else to the 'mix', whilst also having a strong theme amongst many of the characters' pasts. The film overall is really tense and exciting, it builds up many of its events well annd helps to show what we expect from films similar to this, not only does it provide genuinely interesting characters but also a high level of excitement throughout, which combine together to make a film definitely worth watching.

The film definitely isn’t perfect though, it does have a few flaws. One of my main issues is that despite an overall good and entertaining film, it doesn’t offer a massive amount of something we haven’t already seen - which unfortunately holds this film back from being more well known and popular, there simply isn’t a massive amount of new themes or content here. I was also slightly disappointed with the weak character development with some pretty important characters including Kate Bosworth's character. She is essentially the one who sets things in motion, she pops up every once in a while and randomly shows up at the end. Rachelle Lefevre who stars as Maddy's school psychologist isn't given much to work with either. She's introduced and it's evident there's chemistry between her and Statham's character and that's really it. I wanted their relationship to really avoid being cheesy, but at the end I felt like a lot of the characters just didn’t get enough encipherment in the overall story, which is quite disappointing because it ensures that the film feels mainly finished.

Overall, I would give this film a 7.5. It’s a real shame because this film doesn’t do a massive amount wrong, in fact the main issue I have is that there isn’t enough here to really allow the film to stand out, it’s a great film but it just isn’t unique enough to be an award winning film, it doesn’t challenge typical concepts we may experience during the story although it is still a great film which I would definitely recommend, especially considering it is on Amazon Prime at the moment!

Thank you for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did watching the film and writing this review, I hope you have a lovely day! If you would like to check out my Official Facebook page where you can see sneak previous and more film insights then please consider checking out the link below!

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