Bullet to the Head

A hit man (Sylvester Stallone) and a cop (Sung Kang) have to team-up to bring down the guy responsible for killing each of their partners. Well, really the hit man is responsible for killing the cop's partner, but the guy who hired him and his partner double-crossed them, so all bets are off.

There's not much to it, and the movie doesn't help itself by making Kang's character such an empty authority figure. He keeps telling Stallone that they're going to go by the book or whatever, and yet Stallone keeps killing people, with no consequences. You figure possibly, at the end, Detective Kwon will arrest him, but no, he lets him off with a "Next time you step out of line, I'm bringing you down" useless threat.

You can really tell they flubbed the end of the movie, because the last 5-10 minutes there are a series of awkward conversations where it feels like all the characters are waiting for the script to tell them to do one thing, but instead it told them to do something. The hit man's daughter (played by Sarah Shahi) is there, because she was used as leverage against him, and the two of them have some awkward "see ya later" when Stallone just kind of wanders off after shooting Kwon in the shoulder.

Plus, Stallone's character is pretty consistently racist, in what is I think meant to be taken as funny. They pull that off, once, when he commends Kwon on his "samurai warrior" shtick, and Kwon points out he's Korean, not Japanese. Then he says it would be like saying his favorite Italian food was tacos. Stallone's response: 'That's a pretty stupid analogy.'

I mean, he's wrong, but that exchange actually made me chuckle.

Christian Slater's in there as a sleazy lawyer for a former warlord with big plans, played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. Jason Momoa is in here as the problem-solver for Adewale's character, and the guy Stallone's character really wants to kill. Which leads to a fight with fire axes in the remains of an old building.

There's a couple of decent fights in the movie, not for anything flashy they do. More just the way the fights feel somewhat realistic (I'm not including the axe fight, obviously). Characters are going for whatever will give them the advantage at that moment. When Stallone and Momoa first tangle, Stallone buys himself some time by tripping his opponent with a mop bucket that he kicks in the guy's direction. I don't know if I buy Momoa obliterating that restroom sink with his faceplant, but he is a bug dude. But it felt like the sort of desperation, "this is all I've got handy" move someone might really use in an impromptu fight for survival.

I had some odd desire to see if this movie was any good, and overall I'd say no. At least now I know.