A buddy crime film directed by Walter Hill sings out since it has Sylvester Stallone and Sung Kang as its protagonists. The story becomes even more relevant since one cannot deny that the established director of the movie busts the moves within the genre when it comes to pairing up Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte in 48 Hrs.
Based on the works of the French graphic novel Matz, this time Bullet to the Head brings Walter Hill to yet another cop-crime drama in which the cop – you guessed it – has to work with a criminal in order to bring down the mafia.
With confidence retaining its New Orleans setting, Bobo Jimmy gets the familiar character – a contract killer unabashedly trying to defend his profession. Bobo does not give such an option to the US legal system believing that it cannot and will not work. Trying to consign his burden of conscience, he offers only a one-way ticket to the head. So if he considers those who put on police badges the lowest form of life, how come he slaughters a mobster and rescues that gung-ho detective Taylor Kwon (Kang) from the firing squad? ‘How it went down’ is what Bobo intends to clarify a bit too prematurely when the movie has only just started.
Bobo and his partner Louis (Jon Seda) have become assassins and are busy carrying out a contract kill in a house that could be straight out of a Scarface interior design. The surprising part is that after having executed the murder, Bobo allows a witness to survive the carnage, after noticing a puma tattoo on her back. At that point, the plot takes an altogether different twist as Bobo’s biker training helps him to see that he has been played by the same men who hired him for the job in the first place. The only man who is able to assist him is Kwon and therefore though it goes against all of Bobo’s instincts, he is compelled to enter into an uneasy alliance with the cop.
Nevertheless, it appears that Stallone’s recent self-satirical forms, which are slowly coming into picture starting from Rocky Balboa till The Expendables 2, are somehow better this time around. The 66-year-old actor has, however, lived with this body, although he retains his fighting physique still on display at a Turkish bath while tussling with a man who just employed him, for ages remembered that the joints go ‘creak, creak’ like floorboards of a haunted house. Stallone, however, has resolute non-problematic emotions; he is determined to bring about comedic valor and his humour with him bearing ceaseless pack of non-handy jests. During Bobo’s Mexican standoff with Detective Taylor Kwon, Bobo pleads with him to be quick and resolve the conflict because, “My arm is getting tired.”
The centre relationship of all these people double acts who are the governments turn ways around and defeat or bad the target central coherence really makes or breaks the team. Structuring this case, however, it is Kwon idealism that would pass that cheered towards the “old age” Bobo. There’s the generation gap, too – Bobo calls Kwon the “smartphone cop.” One day hatred is transformed in the cinema and in life.
It is certain that all fans of buddy cop films, such as Beverley Hills Cop, Bad Boys, Rush Hour and more recently, 21 Jump Street – love the part in which neither of the two members of the team is the weaker. That is, more so than in an average thriller, Sword, in this case, is the Stallone’s film, and Kwon is buzzing around him.
Nomad’s only hold over them is the fact that she is attracted to Bobo’s tattoo artist daughter played by Sarah Shahi. She is the only little crack in the fortification of Bobo.
The band of criminals is quite funny in its composition, though. It also has one scene stealing Christian Slater who plays a party hooligan with financial resources and a lot of information. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje portrays the head of the M.Morell criminal organization. He has some surprisingly good lines, most obviously the one directed at his head buffed lackey Keeghan: “If I needed your opinion, I would get you a brain and pay for it.”
Jason momoa is the main antagonist in the piece – game of thrones momoa “I fight now and think later”. Like many crime thrillers there is a good amount of action packed into the sparse story of Bullet to the Head, with house explosions, people dying left, right, and centre, and an axe duel that has Bobo raising an eyebrow and feeling like a Viking. But momoa, in spite of appearing as ‘the king’ of the film remake conan the barbarian, is far from being an exhilarating due to the fact that even in this era there are super action stars like aarnold schwarzenegger and bruce willis. And that’s why there is another great again in the form of stallone who manages to outshine all. Then the action moves to the New Orleans power plant, the exact one where director Hlll shot his first feature Hard Times back in 1975. It’s clear that the director has set out to enrich the film with and there are some throwaway fantastic shots, but in the end all it does is irrevocably slow down the film thanks to stupid dialogues and an unwise twist in the story. Verdict. While Bullet to the Head is still a better quality overall, there is no trace of the world classification as the height of the great buddy movies. Even some admirers of the canonical graphic novel might be irritated by the alterations. However, it remains good fun, as long as you do not engage your brain and are a fan of Stallone’s recent films.
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