Bullet to the Head

There’s something faintly tragic about Sylvester Stallone’s determination to cling to those much beloved macho action sensibilities of the 1980s, with his recent series of celluloid flashbacks to those glory days becoming increasingly tiresome. Luckily, this latest retro smash 'em-up delivers more musclebound thrills than melancholy.

Stallone is wily New Orleans assassin Jimmy Bobo, set-up for a fall by his paymasters then inexplicably paired with investigating cop Taylor Kwon (Kang). The duo uncover a gobbledygook real estate conspiracy that “goes right to the top,” bickering and bashing heads along the way – a trope director Walter Hill wrote the book on.

Some of the back-and-forth falls flat, while Kang is generally out of his depth, but there’s wryness in Bullet’s dependence on genre cliché and its aging star has a ball with his no-nonsense button-man. Brutally intense fight scenes, sharp editing and Game of Thrones’ charismatic colossus Jason Momoa as the most '80s henchman this side of Commando provide further zip to an enjoyable 90 minutes. [Chris Fyvie]