“Homefront” was directed by Gary Fleder, written and produced by Sylvester Stallone and based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Chuck Logan. The film stars Jason Statham, James Franco, Kate Boseworth, Wynona Ryder and Frank Grillo. This originally going star Stallone but he eventually passed for his film, “Grudge Match” and the role would go on to Statham.

In a small in Louisiana, former DEA Agent, Phil Broker (Statham) and his younger daughter, Maddy are living in her late mother’s childhood home. One day at school, Maddy is picked on by a older boy. Rather than being bullied, Maddy actually fights back, punching the boy in his nose cause blood to rush out. Phil and the local sheriff department is called. Enraged, the boy’s mother aggressively tries to attack Phil. He quickly subdues the boy’s father. Left embarrassed and humiliated, the boy’s mother, Cassie (Boseworth) who is also a drug addict, contacts her brother, Gator (Franco) to “handle” Phil. Gator starts with petty stuff such as approaching him calmly but when Phil roughs 2 of Gator’s employees at a gas station, he goes further by vandalizing his truck and breaking into his house. When Gator’s learns of Phil’s DEA days, he makes a call to his old gang members. Now, Phil must fend off Gator’s drug ring and also rival gangs in order to protect this small town and most importantly his daughter.

Despite a solid performance from both Statham & Franco, this was a run of the mill thriller. Not over the top like an action movie but not the mystery of a crime drama. A basic action movie with a few combined clichés make this movie entertaining. Statham playing more of silent but deadly family was a nice change of pace compared to his standard action star. James Franco was continuing his turn to more serious roles following his roles of string of comedies and other dramatic roles. This performance is not stand out compared to his others but is good enough to for this film as the bad guy. Kate Boseworth also gives a great performance. This film is a bit bland at most parts but gets entertaining as it progresses.

After this film, Jason Statham joined the “Fast & Furious” franchise as the main villain in the 7th film, 2015’s “Furious 7” as well as 2017’s “The Fate of the Furious” and then would join Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the series spinoff, 2019’s “Hobbs & Shaw”. He would also appear in 2013’s “The Expendables 3”, 2015’s “Spy” & 2018’s “The Meg”. James Franco would go on and appear in films such as “The Interview”, “Why Him?” & “The Disaster Artist”. Gary Fleder would not direct anymore main stream films after this, focusing more on smaller made for TV films as well as episodes on short lived TV series such as, “Star-Crossed”, “The Art of More” & “Kingdom”.