Homefront is not a movie I would typically watch (let alone review), but it has been in my Netflix queue for quite some time. I usually watch some of my more mindless movies in February and March. Before I even begin reviewing, that’s not to say that this was a poorly made movie or one that you shouldn’t watch. It just means that this is a movie you watch purely for entertainment purposes, and its storyline does not require a lot of thought or concentration. Also, I have over 400 movies reviewed at this time, yet I still have not reviewed a Jason Statham (The Mechanic, The Transformer) movie. That has mostly to do with the fact that I don’t watch a lot of Statham movies. I like him as an action star, but my movie watching these days tends to take me away from The Mechanic, The Transformer, The Expendables, and The Fast and the Furious franchises. Although, based on their box office numbers, there is an audience for Statham-type movies. But, now in my early 40s, I find myself drawn more to movies as an art form rather than I do for pure entertainment purposes. And I almost laugh at this, considering the movies I watched 15 years ago compared to today’s movies.

That first paragraph had nothing to do with Gary Fleder’s (The Express, The Runaway Jury) Homefront, the first movie he had directed since 2008 (and he hasn’t done any since, at least at the time of this March 2019 review). This film certainly did nothing to suggest his days as a director should be over. I rather admire his diverse filmography, including movies such as Don’t Say a Word, Kiss the Girls, and Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead. However, it seems he has completely turned his attention to television, involving himself in many shows I recognize but am unfamiliar with as a director and producer. I applaud him for not sticking to a formula and reproducing it repeatedly.

The movies I have seen of his have all been good. Not great, but not bad. Just good. Homefront is your typical revenge movie. And sometimes, that’s all you’re looking for when you go to the movies, which is a mindless escape. Our star is Phil Booker (Statham), posing undercover in a biker gang (posing as a drug operation) in Shreveport, Louisiana. Phil is deep into the gang, having earned the trust of leader Danny (Chuck Zito – FX’s Sons of Anarchy, HBO’s Oz). In the back of the bar, owned by the gang, is a serious meth lab with some serious cooking happening. Outside is the DEA, who will infiltrate the lab and bring all involved down on Phil’s alert. Things go wrong, or we wouldn’t have a movie. Long story short, Danny’s young 20-something son Jo Jo is shot more than 20 times by DEA agents, all in front of a pinned to the ground. Danny learns at that moment that it is Phil who is the narc and swears death to Phil and his entire family, saying in no uncertain terms, “You’re dead. Your family is dead. You’ll never be safe.”

Fast-forward a few months, Phil has quit the police force and is working as an independent blue-collar contractor with Teedo (Omar Benson Miller – Miracle at St. Anna, 8 Mile). He has a 5th-grade daughter in Maddy (Izabela Vidovic – Wonder), a tough little girl who possesses many of the same physical skills and takes less crap than her expertly trained father. What doesn’t make sense is why Phil didn’t move his family away from the area. A death threat from a man with prowess would probably encourage me to move as far away from the area as possible, especially when it seems that there aren’t a lot of ties to the area.

Maddy’s mother died about a year before the movie started, so it’s just Phil and Maddy (kind of cliche). She gets in a little bit of hot water at school when she beats up a bully (a larger boy) who is bothering her. Enter the conflict of the story. The bully that she lays out is Teddy, and his parents are not happy (really, this is how we build the drama) that their “innocent” son has been bloodied and wants (get this) an apology for the shirt that has blood on it to be replaced. It’s right here where the movie differentiates itself from others, excels, and fails. By this, I mean that, unlike many other revenge movies, we have 3-dimensional villains who definitely have reasons for getting back at a little girl and her father are ridiculous. And while it’s an interesting twist to see “bad guys” who maybe aren’t necessarily so bad when things get out of control, the inconsistency and back and forth between characters who are bad (but who draw their lines about how bad they can be) got to be somewhat annoying.

Angry parents Cassie (Kate Bosworth – Still Alice, Blue Crush) & Jimmy (Marcus Hester – Looper, Lawless) are well known throughout the town as a couple of lowlifes. But they are nothing compared to Cassie’s brother Gator (James Franco – 127 Hours, The Disaster Artist), a small-town drug dealer who aspires for more by scaring off others who try to sell in his area. Not exactly physically intimidating, Gator has quite the mouth and is fearless in pistol use. Cassie and Jimmy bring him in to screw with Frank and scare him a little bit just to be tricky. He learns a little more, and that’s when paragraph number two and paragraph number three of this review intercede.