Homefront

For F*** Magazine

HOMEFRONT

Director: Gary Fleder
Cast:         Jason Statham, James Franco, Winona Ryder, Kate Bosworth, Rachelle Lefevre, Frank Grillo, Clancy Brown, Omar Miller, Izabela Vidovic
Genre: Action, Thriller
Run Time: 90 mins
Opens: 5 December 2013
Rating: M18 (Coarse Language, Violence and Sexual Scene)

When we were taught about the evils of drugs in school and all the horrible things narcotics can do to a person’s body, what didn’t receive as much attention in the classroom were the scary, scary people who manufacture and deal said narcotics. The recently-concluded television series Breaking Bad chronicled Walter White’s journey from regular high-school chemistry teacher to treacherous “cook”. In Homefront, Jason Statham comes face to face with some “cooks” of a slightly different variety.

Statham plays Phil Broker, an undercover DEA agent who gets embedded in a biker gang and orchestrates a violent drug bust, resulting in him becoming none too popular and having to lay low. Broker and his daughter Maddy (Vidovic) relocate to the sleepy town of Rayville, Louisiana. Maddy fights back when she’s bullied on the playground, riling the bully’s mother Cassie Bodine (Bosworth). This draws attention to mysterious new neighbour Broker, which isn’t good news as Cassie’s brother Gator (Franco) is a notorious meth kingpin who operates a meth lab with his girlfriend Sheryl (Ryder). Broker must act when the life he tried to escape returns to threaten him – and his daughter.

Homefront is directed by Gary Fleder, from a screenplay by Sylvester Stallone, based on Vietnam vet author Chuck Logan’s novel. The script, which Stallone had written with the intent of playing the lead in mind, sat on a shelf for a while until he selected Statham to replace him in front of the camera. It’s easy to forget that Stallone was nominated for an Oscar for writing Rocky, so he does have typewriter cred. The script is serviceable, not remarkable by any means, and the more tender moments between Broker and his daughter do come off feeling a little forced.

Cinematographer Theo van de Sande offers up some pretty images of Broker and Maddy on horseback and helps juxtapose the beauty of the idyllic bayou with the nastiness of the backwoods denizens who call it home. Throughout most of the film, Statham shows off his hand-to-hand combat skills and, while quick-cutting and shaky cam is employed during the fights, it isn’t overused to the point of nausea. The film’s conclusion is that of a generic action movie, replete with a car chase, shootouts and pyrotechnics, but it is decently-staged.

Statham has become known as an actor who pretty much plays the same guy in all of his films. While Homefront won’t be the movie he will be remembered for, it gives him a chance to do something a wee bit different – just not too different. Here, he’s more Papa Wolf than vengeful badass and it brings to mind Snitch from earlier this year, in which Dwayne Johnson tried something similar. Mostly though, Phil Broker is the standard-issue Statham tough guy. You might be thinking “What’s a Brit doing in the Bayou?” Fleder said of the decision to have Statham speak as he normally does, “I love the idea of (keeping) Jason's natural British accent because it made him more of an outsider. It made him more threatening as an exotic presence in this town." The tactic is pretty effective. Vidovic doesn’t quite stand out from the many other child actors who have played similar roles in action flicks, but she’s okay.

Franco has proven himself as an interesting actor, having dabbled in everything from writing to directing to creating art to giving guest lectures in addition to acting. He’s also proven he can play an entertaining psychopath and does make for an adequate villain here. He doesn’t go all out with the scenery-chewing and isn’t as terrifying as he could’ve been, but he’s good. Ryder plays against type, more white-trash chick than elegant goth girl, and Kate Bosworth looks threadbare as a redneck mama constantly on edge. Thing is, everyone’s teeth look way too good, given that the characters are meth users.



Homefront isn’t anything we haven’t seen before but it is sufficiently different from Statham’s regular “action flick of the week” output and we get to see him as both protective dad and kicker of ass. Is screenwriter Stallone’s Expendables co-star better in the role than the Italian Stallion himself would have been? It’s hard to say but it’s a casting choice that isn’t a horrible misfire.

SUMMARY: Homefront is conventional but sturdy and Jason Statham is a Papa Wolf any daughter would want beating up the drug dealers to protect her.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

Grandpa Oscar's New Car

83^rd Academy Awards ceremony mixes old-school with too-cool-for-school, and overly-jumpy girl with too-sleepy guy. 

Jedd Jong 1/3/11

At the grand old age of 83, Grandpa Oscar is getting on in years. The hired entertainment at Grandpa Oscar’s birthday last year were two actors who, while both funny, were indeed catching up to Gramps. This was, perhaps, the reason that there wasn’t as big a turnout to Grandpa Oscar’s celebration as his family would’ve liked.

So, in an effort to help Grandpa Oscar keep up with the times and perhaps turn in his Model T Ford for in favour of a Ford Focus, we have younger blood. This year’s ceremony continued the trend of having two hosts, and I’ll say it was done much better this year. Anne Hathaway and James Franco are both extremely likable, and can match each other in comic timing and pulchritude. However, it was plain to see that Hathaway’s hyperactive antics were compensating for Franco’s “I’d-rather-cut-off-my-own-arm” demeanour that couldn’t help but leak through sometimes. 

This year’s Academy Awards ceremony, for me, struck a good balance – it didn’t veer too far from the formula (when doing so had previously proved ill-advised at times), it embraced old Hollywood glamour, but added a fine contemporary touch. It was, as if The King’s Speech met The Social Network.

But just as Geoffrey Rush and Jesse Eisenberg would seem odd bedfellows (a hundred apologies for planting that mental image in your head), it wasn’t easy pulling this one off. Many would say the ceremony was too saccharine, a good-natured and respectful atmosphere established from the start, with many an acceptance speech including a heartfelt anecdotal thanks to the recipients’ mothers. 

However bad aspartame may taste, I would prefer it over no sweetening at all.

The stage design easily evoked the days of Tinsletown yore, with basic proscenium arches reminiscent of the Hollywood Bowl. An added touch was that each of the arcs also functioned as projection screens – helping to add an interesting atmospheric effect to the standard video tributes to classic/landmark films. A computer-simulated Bob Hope spouted some of his famously funny lines, before introducing presenters Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr for the Achievement in Visual Effects category, for example.

Hathaway and Franco were more goofball chums than screwball romantic partners and Hathaway saved the day despite looking like she had one intravenous caffeine shot too many. The opening sequence echoed those Billy Crystal employed in the past, and kicked the show off on a fantastic note. The two hosts, with help from Inception’s Leonardo DiCaprio, enter the dreams of Alec Baldwin (one-half of last year’s tag-team) to steal tips on how to host – and along the way find themselves in the worlds of Best Picture nominees including True Grit, Black Swan and The King’s Speech – Hathaway quick to remind her audience in Second-World-War era England that microphones in the future will get smaller. And then, Billy Crystal turns up for all of three minutes, completely stealing the younger hosts’ thunder. It feels as if all the material was great - it just was too much for Hathaway and Franco to juggle.

 In stark contrast to Ricky Gervais’ limits-testing turn as Golden Globes host, Hathaway and Franco stayed mostly respectable and well-behaved even as they worked in some hilarious soundbites – more like a frosty malt than Gervais’ sour grapefruit juice (yet another horrific mental image for the bank) Hathaway bemoaning that she was not nominated for an Oscar even though she had appeared nude (in Love and Other Drugs). The craziest that things got was Franco cross-dressing, wondering about the calls he received from Charlie Sheen earlier in the evening. 

Like the rest of that night’s ceremony, the results were mostly sponge cake, but with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar when needed – the crowd was definitely glad that Christian Bale and Natalie Portman both took home their much-deserved little bald statuettes.

It’s no secret that the Academy often snubs big-budget blockbuster epics, even when they do merit attention. While Inception was passed over for best original screenplay (director Christopher Nolan not even getting a Best Director nomination), it received a good number of technical achievement awards.

In several categories, it seemed as if The King’s Speech was neck-and-neck with The Social Network. But the Academy voters clicked the “like” buttons on the British film’s page instead, stealing the thunder with Tom Hooper snagging best director, Colin Firth for best actor and of course winning Best Picture. The Social Network was able to squeeze in Best Adapted Screenplay, best film editing and best original score edgewise – all (particularly for Aaron Sorkin’s blisteringly clever script) all well-deserved. 

The jaded would bemoan the packaged and manufactured nature of the evening’s proceedings (Celine Dion singing Chaplin’s Smile for the emotional “In Memoriam” segment should be proof enough), but I really enjoyed the ceremony – mostly because it wasn’t so much a ceremony as a college reunion of sorts. Nods were given to the old, as glances thrown forwards at the new –and I actually didn’t find one moment boring.

So, while Grandpa Oscar’s hybrid vintage-modern speedster/sedan may draw some funny looks – and sometimes it works, while at others it doesn’t.

Postscript: I'm sorry that I haven't been posting more reviews and articles. It's not that I've not been watching movies - on the contrary, Royston Loh, the editor of F*** magazine, very kindly offered me some writing assignments. It's not a paying job, but I'm so excited. When the reviews are published in the magazine, I'll be able to put them up here. Look forward to reviews of Unknown, The Adjustment Bureau, Morning Glory and the Singaporean film Forever.