Bullet To The Head Blu-ray Review

13th Jun 2013

Right then action fans, here we have the great Sylvester Stallone’s latest offering (is it really a year since Expendables 2?). The movie with the slightly ridiculous ‘does what it says on the tin’ title, comes to Blu-ray. I feel this might be a somewhat ‘quick capsule’ review (to quote the late great Bill Hicks), so let’s have a look.

Unlike action pal Arnold; Stallone has never really left our movie screens in all the years since Rocky first thrust him into the limelight. There have been peaks and troughs of course, and even the odd lull in activity. However, generally speaking, good, bad or indifferent; there’s normally a Stallone movie pretty much every year, and sometimes more than one.

Veteran action director Walter Hill on the other hand, hasn’t sat in the big chair on a movie in maybe ten years, which is crazy if, like us you’re a fan of the man who brought us The Warriors, 48Hrs et al.

Later this year, we will see Sly team up with Arnold in Escape Plan (formerly known as The Tomb), which sounds like it could really go either way, but for now he and Walter Hill bring us a full fat ,18 certificate, violence-festooned, bloody, buddy, action, thriller, comedy Bullet To The Head.

If you didn’t catch the movie at the flix earlier this year, you’re in good company, not too many people did. The most diplomatic thing we can say, is that, perhaps it somewhat under-performed at the box office, on a not inconsiderable mid level budget and expectation. However, we should try not to let that muddy the water too much, in how we treat the movie for the Blu-ray release here and now. After all, many movies have found their audiences this way.

So, sir Stallone plays an ageing (but still vigorous), hit-man, who (very), reluctantly teams up with a young idealistic cop (Sung Kang) , in order to investigate corruption, and take down a greater common foe. Obviously, their methods and agendas only converge in very limited ways, so disagreements and dysfunctional dynamics rule most of the time (centring on Sly’s propensity to kill people as soon as look at them). The two men do however, get the job done eventually. If it sounds like I could be talking about previous Walter Hill films like 48Hrs, then you’re right. There’s certainly some mileage in that line of thinking, and something of the same type of awkward, uneasy partnership between the two leads here.

Leading the away team, in full on tall, dark and forehead, unstable henchman mode, is Jason Momoa. His 6’5″ muscular frame; while slightly soft here, (compared to his appearance in the dreadful Conan remake). He dwarfs Stallone rather effectively when the inevitable mano a mano squaring up occurs, and cuts a reasonably memorable dash. It must be said, that Sly is in completely amazing physical shape these days. Since ripping his bodyfat back down to what must be at least a sub 10% level for The Expendables, he seems to have maintained that look since. There are one or two shirt off scenes in the movie that defy belief, in terms of the quality and cut condition he’s in. Respect.

The movie is shot (like most Walter Hill movies), in standard 185:1 aspect ratio, which you either dislike, or don’t notice at all (subjective, indeed). This gives the movie a typically workmanlike look, which neither offends nor drops the jaw in awe. Picture quality is perfectly serviceable for a modern Blu-ray release. Most of the film takes place at night, and there aren’t too many instances where the 1080p HD format is really earning it’s keep. It’s fine. Audio is a typical modern standard DTS-HD Master 5.1 set up.

I’m not going to sit here and tell you all this is a great movie. Clearly, it would be a rare thing for a film that tanked badly as this, to be some great misunderstood, unsung masterpiece. It really isn’t. Having said that, it is most certainly not without its charms, and in the right frame of mind, can be pretty enjoyable in a fair few places. The action rips along at a healthy pace, and dialogue; while not snappy, or particularly clever; does have moments that click nicely. Kang’s casting, in bringing an ethnically Chinese man into the buddy mix, makes for a more interesting dynamic, even if you sometimes get the impression that a more adept writer would have come up with more ingenious ways to exploit the culture gap (or indeed, play around with expected stereotypes, and even the assumption that there’s a culture gap at all).

I for one, am a fan of 18 certificate, not particularly ‘good’ guy Stallone. I also like the fact that, these days it would seem our Sly doesn’t always feel the need to have the obligatory love interest, that used to plague his movies with the cheese of monotonous regularity in days of yore. In Bullet to the Head, he’s a pretty ruthless, stubborn, foul mouthed, curmudgeonly old bastard, and I quite dig that. The pacing doesn’t allow the viewer too much time to sit back, and pick any of it apart, which is good, as it’s obviously as daft as big bag of daft things. This shouldn’t come as either a shock, or any kind of disappointment. In fact, pretty much everything about Bullet to the Head is perfectly in keeping with the beloved 80s action movie genre, it is so obviously aping. We said something very similar about Arnold’s recent return (The Last Stand). For my money, Sly nails the formula slightly more bang on, and he and Hill have produced a movie with more repeat watch value too. Where else can you get Sylvester Stallone blowing Christian Slater’s head of with a shot gun? Exactly.

Bonus Features

This is a single disc presentation (and believe me, very few Blu-ray releases ever truly require more than one disc), and we will not need to discuss the ‘bonus’ features for long, as there is only one.

Yes, the disc is very nearly vanilla plain, except for a short ‘making of’ featurette.

That’s it. That’s all you get.

Now, I’m not sure if, had the movie been more successful at the cinema, it would have been furnished with a more generous compliment of features come home release time. You can never tell which way these things are going to go. So, instead of padding out the release with a lot of extras in an attempt to stimulate home media sales, and rescue things a little; Bullet to the Head just seems to be resigned to it’s fate. I would go so far as to say, perhaps they shouldn’t have included any extras at all. It would after all, be a more honest option.

I think if there’s any justice, Bullet to the Head will find more of an audience on Blu-ray and DVD, than it did in theatres. There is certainly fun to be had here. The movie with the ‘does what it says on the tin’ title, pretty much delivers what it says on the tin. Job done then, such as it is.