[UK] Homefront Blu-ray Review

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Former drug enforcement agent, Phil Broker (Statham) is a family man who moves off the grid with his daughter, to a seemingly quiet bayou backwater to escape his troubled past. However, Broker’s world soon becomes anything but quiet once he discovers that an underbelly of drugs and violence riddles the small town. Soon, a sociopathic methamphetamine kingpin, Gator Bodine (Franco) puts Broker and his daughter in harm’s way forcing Broker back into action in order to save his family and the town.

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“Homefront” boasts a fine AVC encoded 1080p video presentation.

As you would come to expect from a newly released movie, detail is fantastic. Statham’s signature stubble looks as sharp as it would in real life, facial details are great as are clothing lines, vehicle and set details and this carries across for both interior and exterior shots. Colours are great during the daytime, especially during the scenes in bayou showing the lush greenery of the surroundings, these colours pop off the screen and look superb, lighting looks great during the daytime scenes also. Darker scenes detail and colours again are very good, although there was a little bit of digital noise on screen due to the black levels. Once the action kicks in, more specifically so to the latter part of the movie a greyer pale blue colour palette has been applied to give a more edgy look but this still maintains all the detail as before. Skin tones appear natural across the movie. Keep an eye out for the police vehicle’s red and blue lights, they literally lit up my room! I did notice some slight image wobble and motion blur during some scenes, but this wasn’t too distracting during my viewing.

Overall a fine transfer to accompany the movie.

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The only track on the film is a wonderfully loud English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track.

From the off the track lets you feel its force from the explosive opening. The surround mix is used to full effect for which creates a really immersing experience from start to finish. Bullets fly from all over the place, the bubbling sound of drugs being cooked up fill the rears as does the sound of nature from the bayou. LFE gives your sub a great workout as well, from the gun shots to explosions to the thuds from fighting, it very rarely lets up. Dialogue flows nicely from the front with great clarity sounding as natural as it could with everything sounding well balanced all culminating to make a very good and impressive audio track.

Also included on the disc are English hard of hearing subtitles.

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“Homefront” arrives on Blu-ray in the UK with the following small selection of extras.

* Stand Off (HD, 5 mins) – A very brief EPK style making of featurette with interviews with Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, and director Gary Fleder and clips from the movie going into very brief detail on how the film came to be.
* Gator (HD, 3 mins) – Another brief featurette, this time a quick interview with James Franco and Jason Statham on the character of ‘Gator Bodine’
* Deleted Scenes (HD, 9 mins)

Overall, not a massive amount on the disc unfortunately. Nothing really delves into the movie itself, only touching at the surface. More cast interviews would’ve been nice especially with the case involved and perhaps a commentary wouldn’t have gone amiss.

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“Homefront” was one of those movies that yet again didn’t get a long theatrical run in the UK and wasn’t particularly marketed very well for the UK audiences. It was however a movie I wanted to see in the cinema as it looked like my kind of movie straight away from the theatrical trailer.

I’ve been a big fan of Jason Statham all the way back to when I first saw him in “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and again in “Snatch” (two fantastic UK movies that I urge all movie fans to watch if you have never seen them). Statham has made some turds along the way, but seeing him as one of the main “Expendables”’ still makes me smile and for me “Homefront” was a decent action-starrer for him, going back to the more “Transporter” role that I love.

The cast list surprised me with this, alongside Jason Staham you’ve got James Franco as the lead villain, who I must say played the part particularly well. It was nice to see him in a more sinister serious role compared to what I’m used to watching him in. You’ve also got Clancy Brown as the town’s sheriff, Kate Bosworth as ‘Gators’ drug addicted potty mouthed sister and a smaller role for Winona Ryder. All seem to work well together and not once did I feel any of the cast seem out of place. Also worth mentioning that Statham uses his normal voice! No bad ‘US’ accents here from him!

The movie gave me a vibe of “The Transporter” mixed with “Walking Tall”, which for me was no bad thing. “Homefront” reminded me a lot of the late 80’s and early 90’s action movies that I grew up on and still love today, and I must admit I enjoyed it for what it was. “Homefront” is nothing we haven’t seen before, but there’s enough action to please the fans out there, although yet again Statham was limited to what was shown on-screen (don’t really think he’s been able to showcase what he’s capable of since “The Transporter” movies in my opinion), and there was quite a bit of ‘shakey cam’ going on which I am getting a little bit fed up with now. However, “Homefront” is very violent, doesn’t hold back on the blood (SQUIBS!!!) nor does it hold back on the swearing. It’s certainly not toned down to a crappy 12A/PG13 rating which so many action films tend to lean towards now.

Overall this is a decent enough movie to kick back with a pizza and a few beers to sit back and enjoy. The Blu-ray release whilst a bit short on the extras boasts a great picture and loud meaty soundtrack. “Homefront” definitely comes recommended from me.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjSOj8b804U

Pre-order your copy from Amazon.co.uk

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About the author

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER | Matt is a huge movie fan with a big passion for all the 80s cheesy Action movies. Anything Arnold Schwarzenegger related is an instant hit too! Also a UK Blu-ray reviewer for Hi-Def Ninja and UK Editorial Manager.