Bullet to the Head (Walter Hill)

[EyesWideOpen]

imdb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1308729/)

http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc261/gothamcentral79/bullet-to-the-head-poster_zps16a2adc9.jpg

[Ezee E]

Walter Hill directed this? No kidding... Spikes my interest a ton.

[Morris Schæffer]

Walter Hill directed this? No kidding... Spikes my interest a ton.

This Hill adoration is odd. Sure, he's done some nice things, but this seems like eons ago.

[transmogrifier]

This Hill adoration is odd. Sure, he's done some nice things, but this seems like eons ago.

Just watch Southern Comfort and shut up.

[Sven]

This Hill adoration is odd.

Words I never want to see again, okay?

[Raiders]

This Hill adoration is odd. Sure, he's done some nice things, but this seems like eons ago.

Not really true. He just hasn't made much. Undisputed is pretty good and Broken Trail was a nice TV-movie. That's all he has done in the last ten years.

I guess the question is, would you say the same for Carpenter? Your statement could apply to him as well, but it should be no shock that for his next film, people express anticipation for something potentially good.

[number8]

There was also the Deadwood pilot, although who knows how much of it was him and how much was control-freak Milch.

[plain]

really dug this, the plot is secondary to all the bone crunching excess. it's also unsurprisingly very self-aware and riddled with a sorta 80s buddy cop/partner milieu. I'll be thrilled if the new die hard is just as good.

[Ezee E]

Hill is capable of doing greatness. That's what matters. On trailer judgement, I thought it was just someone for hire.

[Skitch]

Wow this was awful.

[plain]

did a small write-up of the film:http://serenecinema.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/bullet-to-the-head/

[Sven]

Real good movie. Sizable ambitions, new life in a classic mold, an axe fight that clacks. The tension lines that hover off of Bobo are practically tactile. See it; get reacquainted with moral quandary buried within genre artifice.

[Morris Schæffer]

I guess I always felt he did one cult classic and a few fun genre pictures although I haven't seen Southern Comfort. More than that though, he just seems like a has been which is perception more than anything else. Raiders, I can honestly say I wouldn't look forward to a John Carpenter film anymore, but it sure would be nice to be wrong on that.

[Sven]

I guess I always felt he did one cult classic and a few fun genre pictures although I haven't seen Southern Comfort.

Rectify, Morris. For penance's sake.


More than that though, he just seems like a has been which is perception more than anything else.

Awfully quick to dismiss, hombre. Hill's an "always", never a "has been".

[Rowland]

I remember thinking Southern Comfort was only half of a great film, maybe another viewing will rectify that response.

[number8]

I think to be a has-been you have to release a string of mediocre, forgettable movies that push your great movies further into the distant memory. Like Spike Lee. If you can be a has-been just by not having released a great movie in years, then Terrence Malick can be considered a has-been.

[Sven]

Yes. And his last before this, Undisputed, is one of his best.

[megladon8]

Is Walter Hill someone that is fairly well known among mass audiences?

I've noticed that some of the advertising (like the poster above, for example) seems to capitalize on it being a Walter Hill film, but he's not a director I would have expected to have that kind of name recognition.

That they bold-capped his name seemed odd. Normally that's reserved for the James Camerons and Steven Spielbergs of the world, no?

[D_Davis]

Is Walter Hill someone that is fairly well known among mass audiences?

I've noticed that some of the advertising (like the poster above, for example) seems to capitalize on it being a Walter Hill film, but he's not a director I would have expected to have that kind of name recognition.

That they bold-capped his name seemed odd. Normally that's reserved for the James Camerons and Steven Spielbergs of the world, no?

It's directed towards film viewers like us, who know the name. "Wow...Walter Hill did this? Now I'm more interested!"

[Watashi]

I would like to see someone defend his 90's work of Last Man Standing, Wild Bill, and Geronimo.

[number8]

Last Man Standing is better than A Fistful of Dollars.

Specifically, Yojimbo > Last Man Standing > A Fistful of Dollars.

[megladon8]

Last Man Standing is better than A Fistful of Dollars.

Specifically, Yojimbo > Last Man Standing > A Fistful of Dollars.


That's offensive.

[number8]

AFOD is early, low-rung Leone. Every movie he'd made since (with the exception of Duck You Sucker) was better than the previous one.

[megladon8]

AFOD is early, low-rung Leone. Every movie he'd made since (with the exception of Duck You Sucker) was better than the previous one.

I completely agree, but it's still worlds ahead of Last Man Standing. That movie hurts my brain.

[Raiders]

I haven't seen it in ages, but I remember thinking Geronimo was actually a pretty interesting film; taking the classic John Wayne western scenario and making it much more sympathetic, not only to the Native Americans but to the men stuck roaming around and trying to co-exist.

[Skitch]

Last Man Standing is fucking great.

I say again, Bullet To The Head is awful. Just downright awful. It wasn't even so-bad-it's-fun, it was just bad. Not even groaner-laugh bad.

[Morris Schæffer]

Trespass? Another one I haven't seen, but Bill Paxton and Bill Sadler as protagonists sounds pretty sweet.

[Henry Gale]

This wasn't anything special. Out of the two most recent "aging Expendables star makes a trashy action-er with an adorably '80s-movie spirit", I take The Last Stand over this.

The cast basically brings it to a level that it's mildly enjoyable, to the point where I'm not sure why a lot of people are even in this considering their small roles (Christian Slater, Brian Van Holt, WTF Mr. Eko?). But I did get the biggest kick out of how many scenes are telegraphed in ways that I'd joke about what the next scene was going to be, and then that exact thing happens. For example:

-----
We see Stallone and Kang roll up to a bad guy's house, see that the party he's throwing is a masquerade ball. Kang gives up. Stallone reassures him, "Don't worry, I got a plan"

(At which point I turned to my friend as asked, "Haha does he know a great costume shop nearby?")

Cut to a montage of them trying on masks at a costume shop.
Yes, this really happens, and it's as cute as you'd hope.
-----

I'm not really sure how or why Walter Hill directed this, or if this was just a well-paying way of him to learn to use editing software (seriously, there's a horrible, sun-soaked transition that happens ten times too many), but sadly, aside from the clear assuredness of a lot of the location work and some of the action choreography and geography, anyone could've been behind this.

But if anyone is still interested in seeing this, make a drinking game strictly after someone gets shot in the forehead (and add in every time Stallone calls Sung Kang a hacky Asian pop-culture nickname if you want to get really hammered). You will be in sheer, drunken disbelief at how many times the movie decides to live up to its title.

The ax fight is cool, though.

** / C

[Scar]

Haven't watched this flick yet, but just wanted to chime in the I also think Last Man Standing​ is awesome.

[Dukefrukem]

Disappointing.

[number8]

Love the energy of it, and the cast is great. Momoa makes for a fun villain. That axe fight is off the hook.

Absurdly dumb script, though. Like, really awfully haphazard. The dialogue is hilariously bad, especially in the Christian Slater interrogation scene.

"I'm not telling you shit!"
"I will torture you."
"I'm not scared, I'm not telling you shit!"
"No, really, I will torture you."
"I will tell you everything now."