BULLET TO THE HEAD

I am a huge Walter Hill fan. Creator of legendary tough guy movies such as Extreme Prejudice,48 Hours, Southern Comfort and Last Man Standing.

This movie plays more into the buddyaction-genre of Hills previous efforts as 48 Hours and Red Heat, but with less emphasis on laughs and more on grit and hardedged violence.
At first I was a bit disappointed ,since the leads (Sly and Sung Kang) are both each others complete opposites, usually the outcome is some sort of enjoyable banter  between them.I don´t think that worked if it was ever meant to. The dialogue is terrible.  Perhaps I am a bit Shane Blacked by now. And by that I mean,I expect witty comebacks and one-liners out of the movie´s ass Lethal Weapon or The Last Boyscout-style.

But I realized, I liked it more than I thought I did after my watch. Shit I did not like at first was the cheap look of it, the terrible camerawork at some of the action and the whole feel of it was straight-to-dvd. But it felt gritty, unremorseful and unapologizing as a pulpy lowbrow 90-minute  b-movie. And for that it was good.

I think my expectations were a bit off the mark.when popping this motherfucker in my dvd-player. Sly has come of some seriously over the top actioners of recent and then going back for something more intimate was a bit of a change.I liked that it has pretty much the feel of a Walter Hill movie. It is macho as hell and violent as shit, but not too fancy. I would not expect large CGI-scenes in a Hill-actioner. He is about  old school action, about the characters sense of honor which they will not bend and that is why they collide and makes them special and fun to watch.

It was not one of Walter Hills greatest, but I welcome the grandfather of gritty action-movies back to the scene. We need you!