Homefront

PLOT:
After taking down a major drug ring, ex-military, ex-DEA agent Phil Broker (played by Jason Statham) had to get him and his young daughter Maddy (played by Izabela Vidovic ) out of town. Now retired and living in a Southern small town, Phil and Maddy are living a happy life in their country home until Maddy gets in trouble with another kid at school. What starts off as a minor incident quickly escalates into a fight with a local roughneck Gator (played by James Franco). Phil learns that in this small Southern town getting revenge for something that was caused by someone else is still common place and Phil is at the top of the list.

ACTING:
For a movie that I didn't even know had been made I was surprised by how it had a well known cast. Jason Statham, Winona Ryder, James Franco, Kate Bosworth, Clancy Brown, and Omar Benson Miller is the main cast for Homefront, with of course Jason Statham and James Franco being the main cast. Jason Statham plays his normal role as the guy who can take down anyone and everyone, which he does so many times in this movie. Does he give a bad performance, no, he knows this kind of role better than most, that's why he keeps getting these roles but that don't make the movies any less fun to watch.

The two actors that actually play a different style role, at least different from what I've seen them play in are James Franco and Kate Bosworth. I've seen James Franco play a the villain in a movie but one that was nothing like this. In Homefront he's this guy who is a drug dealer that only wants to make more money with his drugs by doing everything the wrong way. Out of all the actors in this movie it's James Franco that I thought gave the best performance. As for Kate Bosworth, I didn't even realize at first that it was her when I saw her character. I knew she was in the movie and I was waiting to see her but even after she'd been on screen a few times I didn't place that was her. I don't know if Kate Bosworth lost weight for this role or if that's just how she now looks but she is really thin and rough looking in this movie. She does a good job in playing the drug addict with looks and acting but it was still a surprise to see her looking that way. Another cast member that does a good job in this movie is the newcomer Izabela Vidovic as  the 10 year old Maddy. She don't overplay her role when it came to the serious scenes nor does she come over as being fake.

PLOT/STORY/ORIGINALITY:
Nothing much original in Homefront but it was still a fun movie to watch. It's a simple formula, take a undercover cop that when he busts the gang the leaders kid ends up dead. Now that agent is living a happy life but someone learns of who he is and wants to use that information to get what he wants from the gang leader. All of which can be good when it's been executed correctly and Homefront gets pretty close to doing that. It has good actors, the plot is easy to follow, and for anyone that's an fight/action junkie they will love this movie.

Writing on this movie was almost really good, and I say almost because except for one plot device the story is well written. I instantly knew who to root for and who not to when it came to the characters but it was more than just knowing who was the hero and villain. Homefront features characters that are believable, well aside from Jason Statham's character being able to take out anyone. The feud that starts is one that's small, one that would be easily solved in any other town, but in this small Southern town that hold grudges that feud turns into death and destruction. It's one flaw, the flaw that sets up the ending of the movie but is one that I just don't see it happening, is the how James Franco's character learns who Phil Broker is. It's very unlikely that he would just pull out that exact information out of the many that was there but he does and it's the one that just so happens connects the movies beginning to the ending. It's a little too easy and way too unlikely but it's an action movie so I looked past that, some.

BLU RAY:
How did Homefront look on Blu Ray? Not too bad, not great, definitely not the best Blu Ray that I've seen, but it still looks good. There's some noise that can be seen in the picture quality, not much when the scenes are bright but it's there and seen in the darker scenes. It's not enough that most people won't notice but when you are looking to see how well the picture quality is on this Blu Ray then you will notice that it's there. It's worst aspect is that the audio levels are not edited that well. I was able to hear everything alright, though I had to turn up the volume some, but then I had to quickly turn it back down because when the action scenes where happening the volume seemed to be louder than the dialog. It don't help that Jason Statham has that low gravely voice that makes for low levels when he's talking so not have the opposing sounds mixed to match each other made for low and loud moments while watching. Second worst part of the Blu Ray, there's only two extras and neither one is that great. I would have liked to seen more with the one called “Standoff” because it's way too short and getting a behind the scenes interviews are always fun to watch.