Homefront - Meet ‘Jambo’

The one thing I knew about ‘Homefront’ before I watched it was the, originally, Sylvester Stallone was attached to the project and had notions of turning it into part of his ‘Rambo’ franchise.  However, as he was getting on in age, he passed on it, handing it over to his Expendables co-star, Jason Statham.  So, meet a hybrid of Rambo and Jason – ‘Jambo!’

Here, the ‘Stath’ drops his attempts at putting on an American accent and plays an (oddly British) DEA agent who moves to a small town with his daughter to escape some particularly nasty drug lords.  However, Jambo, never being one to shy away from trouble, soon finds himself at odds with the local rednecks (and yet more drug-type nasties).  These come in the form of James Franco and Winona Ryder, both of who don’t seem to put as much menace in their performances as their acting abilities dictate they could have done.  Kate Bosworth does well at portraying one of the 'white-trash' locals - in fact... she plays her part a little too well.  I had to look at her name in the credits to find out it was actually her!

Don’t expect too much ‘Transporter-esque’ punching and kicking in the fight scenes.  It’s more on a par of what you’d see in your average Arnie/Sly action movie of the eighties.  Plus there’s quite a few clichés the movie adheres to, i.e. Stath’s black best friend (and we all know what happens to black best friends in Hollywood), plus the fact that Stath is a single parent who obviously meets the one beautiful, single woman in the town who’s totally into single fathers.

If you’re a fan of the Stath in general, this will be a reasonable addition to your collection of his work.  Plus seeing as some of his recent efforts (baring Expendables movies) have been a little ‘samey.’ Plus Homefront is also a solid little action thriller which should keep fans of the genre happy.  Just don’t expect anything too groundbreaking, only some harmless head-slitting from our balding, British baddass.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that