Director Walter Hill (48Hrs, 1982) brings us this less than stylistic throwback-to-an-eighties action flick; based on Alexis Nolent’s French graphic novel “Du Plomb Dans La Tete.” Hill seems to be a strong director with a history of elevating run-of-the-mill genre pieces by injecting them with broad scope storylines and a type character-driven approach to action-flick storytelling. However, somehow his style didn’t work for this latest release, very well. I would even go one step further and say that his casting Sylvester Stallone, in the lead role, has hurt this production tremendously. Moreover and somewhat arguably, Sly’s acting and action style is too deeply rooted in the eighties to have any real relevance to today’s action movies.

I find it quite interesting that in this latest flick, Stallone appears in his first non-franchise-driven (franchises – Expendables, Rocky or Rambo) role, since 2001. It kinda’ feels like a little more than coincidence that this release arrives in theaters right between Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “The Last Stand” and the upcoming release of Bruce Willis’ latest “Die Hard.” One could surmise that this movie provides Sly the chance to stretch outside his franchise-driven comfort zone and parks him squarely in the midst of the return of the “eighties-action-icons club.” A questionable return, I would argue.  READ FULL BULLET TO THE HEAD REVIEW >>

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