I wasn’t expecting much from this Southern style revenge action flick, so I was pleasantly surprised by certain elements of it.  The story has a former DEA agent (Jason Statham) and his young daughter trying to build a new life — an impossible task once a local drug dealer (James Franco) discovers his identity.  Statham is a lot like Chuck Norris used to be — heroically tough, fast, stone faced and brutal — and he doesn’t disappoint.  Franco is okay as the small time villain with big dreams, although there is one particular shot that absolutely begs for a big reaction from him — at least a widening of the eyes — and he fails to deliver.  It’s as if he were once again hosting the Oscars.

What surprised me was the star power of the supporting females in this Louisiana parish.  Kate Bosworth is all trailer-trashy as Franco’s sister, and Winona Ryder (!) has a key role as one of his associates in crime.  In most of these revenge action flicks women are either being tortured to create a reason for the hero’s revenge, stripping in the background or not visible at all, so it is a nice change to see good actresses given decent roles in this type of movie.  On the other hand, Rachelle Lefevre (from TV’s “Under the Dome”) is given exactly the type of goody goody role that women usually receive in this type of movie, with no payoff at all.

Gary Fleder’s movie — written by Sylvester Stallone several years ago — falls into a familiar pattern rather quickly, establishes several interesting conflicts, and finally rambles into a protracted action climax that makes little sense and fails to address the conflicts that were previously raised.  The last third of this movie is, believe it or not, its weakest aspect, and that is true even with Statham breaking people in half and saving his daughter from not just one but two groups of bad people.  If the movie had ended as it had begun, perhaps it would be worth watching, but alas, that is not the case.  Rent an old Chuck Norris movie instead.  ☆ ☆.  8 December 2013.