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Valencia Voice

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Valencia Voice

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Stalemate for Sly, latest romp loses big

Stalemate+for+Sly%2C+latest+romp+loses+big

“Bullet to the Head” falls just short of okay. It gets really close, though.

In the film, Sylvester Stallone plays hitman Jimmy Bobo. This being a Hollywood film, it goes without saying that he has both a conscience and a moral code. Hollywood would have you believe that hitmen only like to kill other bad guys, because it is so hard to pull the trigger on a stand up citizen.

Jimmy, being burdened with a conscience, is out to avenge the murder of his partner Louis by a very gifted mercenary named Keegan, played rather woodenly by Jason Momoa. Of course, he and Lewis had been getting up to some murdering themselves earlier that evening, supplying Detective Taylor Kwon, played by Sung Kang, with ample reason to make a trip down to Crescent City.

Early on in the film Jimmy and Taylor team up, and thus one of the most racist partnerships in pseudo buddy cop film history is born.

A lot of the problems in “Bullet to the Head” can be summed up by one word: cliche. Criminal with a heart of gold? Check. Young and cocky sidekick? Check. Mercenary who considers himself something of a hero? Check and dumb. Damsel in distress? Check.

So much of this movie is spent being things the audience has seen a thousand times that one can forget that underneath all the obvious gunk is a rather tense action flick. Jimmy is very good at his job, and he gets into a few well choreographed fight scenes that almost make the film worth slogging through.

One particular scene, early on in the film, does a nice job at introducing just how brutal this movie can be.

Too bad we spend so much time wasting time on rather poorly defined characters. For the most part, everyone, other than Jimmy, is a caricature; either a face or a heel.

Keegan is odd in that the script tries to paint him as some sort of mercenary with a twisted sense of honor, but he is never seen doing anything even remotely decent. He just really enjoys the sight of blood.

Jimmy, interestingly enough, does possess a conscience but still has no qualms putting a literal bullet through the head of anyone he thinks deserves it.

Walter Hill, the film’s director and co-writer, has a tendency to cut shots in a number of interesting (read: distracting) ways. He probably thought it would make the film seem more alive and vibrant … it does not.

If you’re a fan of Stallone, you will probably enjoy this. For others, this movie is, cleverly enough, like a bullet to the head.

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