Since his reprisal as the Italian Stallion in 2006’s Rocky Balboa, action movie icon Sylvester Stallone has enjoyed a late-stage career renaissance. His return to the Rocky and Rambo franchises resulted in a strong worldwide box office. Similarly, The Expendables and its three sequels allowed him to share his good fortune with a modern-era action star like Jason Statham.
In 2005, Stallone developed a project called Homefront, which he initially intended to be the fourth Rambo installment. The story follows a retired drug enforcement agent, Phil Broker, who relocates to a small Louisiana town with his daughter Maddy to start a new life chapter. Unfortunately, a schoolyard fight between Maddy and a bully escalates into a deadly feud between Broker and the bully’s meth-dealing Uncle Gator. Between the small town setting and the slow burn of violence, Homefront plays like one of Stallone’s Rambo movies.
Stallone had written a draft for the Homefront story, which repurposed the escalation of violence in an American small-town setting. He intended to move the Rambo character forward by having him return to the United States as a father and protect his daughter from the meth-dealing gang. However, Stallone later abandoned the idea of turning Rambo into a family man, instead opting for the Burma premise for 2008’s Rambo, which saw the character in a much darker place.
A Still From Rocky (1976)(Photo: Rocky)
With Stallone revamping Homefront as an original project, the action-thriller eventually became a unique vehicle for Statham. Statham plays Broker, a retired drug enforcement agent who relocates to a small Louisiana town with his daughter Maddy. As Broker, Statham shows his softer side through his relationship with Maddy and seeks atonement for his law enforcement past after the brutal death of a biker gang member he was investigating.
Despite the violence that erupts throughout the film, Homefront’s strength lies in its non-violent tension among the characters. Director Gary Fleder, known for his work on thrillers such as Don’t Say a Word and Runaway Jury, brings the best out of Statham’s performance through his tense conflicts with Franco as the main villain, along with reliable character actors.
Stallone’s style as a screenwriter is evident throughout the escalation of Broker’s war with Gator as well as the heartfelt moments between Broker and Maddie. With pulpy action and solid performances by the cast, Homefront is a nice throwback to classic Stallone and Charles Bronson action programmers.
