Warner Bros.
91 min., dir. by Walter Hill, with Sylvester Stallone, Jason Momoa, and Christian Slater

January is the month of comparing Arnold Schwarzenegger’s return to every other action film out there. While Arnie was off signing legislative bills, Sylvester Stallone was still plucking away, resurrecting Rocky and Rambo and forming his superstar team of action hero elites. Though The Expendables films were rife with blood, bullets, and blades, they were playing off a very specific genre stereotype. Playing off another one of those stereotypes, Bullet to the Head could have been another stupid beat ’em up with little to no redeeming value — and yes, the film is mighty shaky in so many ways, but it has three very important people that actually make it an interesting film: writer Alessando Camon, cowriter and director Walter Hill, and Stallone.

Jimmy Bobo (Stallone) and Louis Blanchard (Jon Seda) are accomplished hit men for hire. Their most recent hit could have gone a bit smoother, but they would certainly say it went off without a hitch. However, instead of being met with a bag of money for their work, they are met by a knife-wielding gargantuan who wants nothing more than to see these two thugs dead. Jimmy escapes with his life intact, but he’s soon met by Taylor Kwon (Sung Kang), a Washington, DC detective who’s in town to investigate the death of his former partner — who just happens to be the jerk-off Jimmy whacked to set this whole mess in motion. Kwon knows Bobo was responsible for the hit, but he also knows he was just a hired hand — so Kwon offers Jimmy a deal to work with him. Can this odd relationship of law and lawlessness work together without putting each other in the grave?

Bullet to the Head is based on a famous French graphic novel Du Plomb Dans La Tete. Director Walter Hill does a bang-up job of creating that comic book atmosphere, without really falling into the typical visual traps. Hill is a legend — this is the man who bought you The Warriors, produced every single Alien movie, breathed new life into modern Westerns, and perfected the mismatched duo comedy/drama genre with 48 Hours. He’s been away from the screen in the director’s chair for about 11 years, working more on TV projects like “Deadwood” and “Broken Trail.” If there’s one thing that Bullet to the Head proves, it’s that Hill has lost nothing in terms of his directorial eye, and has easily adapted to the grittier, darker style that dominates today’s action flicks. In the hands of a less accomplished director who is interested in style over substance,  Bullet to the Head would have turned out far less satisfying.

Based on that last paragraph, you might expect that I’m ready to give Bullet to the Head a four-star review. Unfortunately, the film’s story and most of the performances are still pretty lackluster and cliché. I think it’s time for someone to come up with something other than a story that includes a politician’s evil plan leading to piles of dead bodies, and a cadre of corrupt cops. However, you might have noted that I commend writer Alessandro Camon in the opening. Well, Camon doesn’t have a long list of credits behind his name yet, but he’s the man who wrote the very solemn 2009 Woody Harrelson drama, The Messenger. Does that give him a stay of execution? No, but the best parts of Bullet to the Head are not the fights and gun battles. Rather, the magnetic aspects of Bullet to the Head are the scenes of witty banter between Jimmy and Kwon. I don’t know if most of the dialogue in those scenes can be qualified as one-liners, but they deliver all the goods you expect from a classic ’80s action movie joke. This is the first time since Hill’s 48 Hours that I was excited to see the two leads get into a car together. I was more amped to know I was heading into a scene of pure dialogue than action, because I knew I was going to be entertained by what comes out of their mouths — or, at least, Stallone’s.

Many people will hear Stallone’s name and instantly think of one thing: his voice. Too many people see Sly as a juiced-up moron who’s only good for screaming and shooting a gun. For those people who forget that Stallone wrote Rocky and First Blood (a film that is not really an action movie, and contains one of the most shockingly gut-wrenching final monologues), or for those who never really sat and watched Copland (a Stallone performance that gets overlooked and should have garnered him an award), make no mistake: Stallone is a smart guy who knows what he’s doing — and boy, does he hit the mark here. There’s no doubt that it’s the combination of Hill and Stallone that make this film work, but without Stallone, none of this would work.

Jimmy Bobo is an unsympathetic lowlife, through and through. He has practically no redeeming values and is completely unapologetic about it, and Sly sells it — you do not fall in love with the character, yet still leaves you not entirely hating his guts. That’s a tough card to play without rubbing people the wrong way, but he pulls it off.

Bullet to the Head is the perfect example of expecting the worst, yet being pleasantly surprised by the results, even though it is not a complete success. Still, this is a fine job by both Walter Hill and Sylvester Stallone, who both prove you don’t have to be a young gun to produce good work.

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Matthew Schuchman is the founder and film critic of Movie Reviews From Gene Shalit’s Moustache and a contributor to Den of Geek.