Jason Statham has become one of the main guys in the action genre, co-starring with others in films like The Expendables and lone projects such as the excellent Crank. In Homefront he stars in a story written originally by Sylvester Stallone to star himself, as an undercover cop who goes to live in a small town with his daughter after the loss of his wife and a bust that went horribly wrong, but soon finds out his past is going to catch up with him.
Homefront is a lean, mean piece of film-making and is all the better for it. Statham is excellent as the ex-cop who tries his best to avoid trouble but is soon in the thick of the action when his daughter is threatened. The direction by Gary Fleder is solid, the action scenes are filmed well and easy to follow and have a hard brutal edge.
Kudos also to the supporting cast including Winona Ryder and especially James Franco as Gator a man on the edge who you think will explode into violence at any time. With Tension building all the way up to a bloody climax, Homefront is one of the most satisfying action films I have seen this year so far.
The Blu ray released by Lions Gate is what you would expect from a recent film. A superb 1080p transfer with bold colours and solid blacks. Not much more can be said as the film looked perfect for its short 95 minutes running time. The sound is again very good, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 gives out a very dynamic sound stage, especially during the many action scenes.
Extras are where this release is disappointing. All you get is the trailer and two very short making-of featurettes which don’t add up to much information about the film at all. Other than that this release comes recommended for all action and Statham fans.
FILM: 8 PICTURE: 9 SOUND: 8.5 EXTRAS: 4
