Bullet to the Head (Blu-ray) (2012)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Trailer-Warm Bodies System Test-DTS-HD MA sound check
Rating
Year Of Production	2012
Running Time	91:36
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Walter Hill
Studio Distributor	Icon Entertainment	Starring	Sylvester Stallone Sung Kang Sarah Shahi Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje Jason Momoa Christian Slater
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	?	Music	Steve Mazzaro

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     New Orleans hit men James Bonomo (Sylvester Stallone) and Louis Blanchard (Jon Seda) fulfil a contract hit but later, as they wait in a bar for payment, they are attacked and Louis killed although Bonomo escapes. Elsewhere, Washington DC detective Taylor Kwon (Sung Kang) has come to New Orleans following the man Bonomo and Louis have just killed, a corrupt ex-cop. Kwon links the two deaths and tracks down Bonomo, who declines to assist. But when Kwon is ambushed and wounded by corrupt police, he is saved by Bonomo and the two decide, with reservations, to work together to find out who is ordering the hits. The trail leads the pair through crooked lawyer Marcus Baptiste (Christian Slater) to businessman and real estate entrepreneur Robert Nkomo Morel (Adewale Akinnuoye Agbaje), uncovering on the way a web of bribery and corruption at the highest levels of government and the judiciary. But the pair in turn are being hunted by corrupt police and the psychopathic killer Keegan (Jason Momoa), and when Keegan abducts Bonomo’s adult daughter Lisa (Sarah Shahi) the conflict becomes very personal.

     Bullet to the Head is directed by veteran Walter Hill, who has made some excellent buddy / action films such as 48 Hrs. (1982) as well as straight action fare like the underrated Last Man Standing (1996). However he has not made a feature film in 10 years, being more involved in producing films such as AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Prometheus (2012). While he is perhaps a bit out of practice Bullet to the Head is still slickly made and pumps along at a frenetic pace, fueled by quick cuts in editing and a driving rock soundtrack by Steve Mazzaro. The action sequences are chaotic and exciting, if nothing new, although when Stallone and Momoa go at each other with fireman’s axes at the end it is worth waiting for.

     The weakest aspect of the film is the plotting and the “buddy” elements. Bullet to the Head is based upon the graphic novel Du plomb dans la tete and things that can be skipped over on the page may not always make sense on the screen. Thus, while the build-up is fine, the last third of Bullet to the Head lacks any logic while the subplot with Bonomo’s daughter is very much a token female role. A hitman and a straight laced cop working together is an interesting juxtaposition and can work really well, such as in John Woo’s fabulous The Killer (1989), as can racial opposites (black and white 48 Hrs. or black and Asian (Rush Hour). In Bullet to the Head we get white / Asian and while Stallone still looks fabulous and can deliver dead-pan lines with the best, the “buddy” scenes with Kang just do not work due to some dumb banter and a lack of spark between them.

     Bullet to the Head wastes no time getting going and seldom stops for breath from there. It is slick and well-made and, if the plot will not test your brain cells, the film is entertaining, the action sequences are loud and chaotic and Stallone is certainly worth watching.

Video

     Bullet to the Head is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, the original ratio, in 1080p using the MPEG-4 AVC code.

     Shot digitally and transferred to film, Bullet to the Head looks great. Close up detail is pristine and sharp, showing off Stallone’s grizzled features, while wider shots are also very clear. The colours have that flat, almost harsh, digital look but this works well as lot of the scenes are at night or in darker lighting. Blacks are deep and solid, shadow detail excellent. Skin tones, contrast and brightness are all consistent.

     The print shows some light, pleasing grain, there is occasional motion blur against vertical lines and slight noise reduction in a couple of scenes, but otherwise marks and other artefacts were absent.

     There are subtitles available in English for the hearing impaired.

     The video is very good.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The only audio choice is English DTS-MA HD 5.1.

     Dialogue is sometimes difficult to hear so the subtitles proved useful. The most prominent part of the sound design is the driving rock score by Steve Mazzaro that blasts from all speakers, giving the movie a pulsating feel that works well, if sometimes a bit overwhelming. When the music was not prominent there was crowd noise and lesser ambient sound in the surrounds but during the action scenes the sound stage was filled with gunshots, bullet hits, thuds and explosions. There was some panning effects and during the climax axes swished around the rears while the clang of hits reverberated in the fronts. The subwoofer added bass to the music and the explosions.

     Lip synchronisation was fine.

     The audio track was loud and enveloping.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Trailer

     A trailer for Warm Bodies (1:58) plays on start up. It cannot be selected from the menu.

DTS-HD MA Sound Check

     5.1 and 7.1 sound check for your system.

    The US Region A Blu-ray and UK Region B Blu-rays of Bullet to the Head both include as an extra a short featurette “Bullet to the Head: Mayhem Inc.” running 9:19 that has been described as very clip heavy and promotional. It hardly seems worth importing just to get that minor extra.

    Bullet to the Head is an action film which will not test the brain cells but which pumps along at a frenetic pace, fueled by quick cuts in editing and a driving rock soundtrack. The action sequences are loud and chaotic and Stallone is certainly worth watching and there are far worse ways to spend 90 minutes.

     The video and audio are very good, the extras are only a trailer for another film and a sound check.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall