Dinesh Kamath's column on Hollywood movie 'Bullet to the Head' that was published in Newsband

Bullet to the Head is a 2013 action film, directed by Walter Hill based upon Alexis Nolent's French graphic novel Du Plomb Dans La Tete. The film stars Sylvester Stallone, Jason Momoa, Sung Kang, Sarah Shahi, and Christian Slater. Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Kevin King Templeton have produced the film.

The movie has an interesting plot. In the film, a hitman (Sylvester Stallone) teams with a young NYPD detective (Sung Kang) in a high-stakes investigation that leads from dingy back alleys all the way to the power corridors of New Orleans. The unlikely duo, brought together by two vicious murders, take on all who stand in their way, willing to sacrifice everything to exact revenge.

The movie has Sylvester Stallone as Jimmy Bobo, Sung Kang as Detective Taylor Kwon, Jason Momoa as Keegan, Christian Slater as Marcus Baptiste, Sarah Shahi as Lisa Bobo, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Morel, Jon Seda as Louis Blanchard and Holt McCallany as Hank Greely.

Adapted from the French graphic novel of the same name (or Du Plomb Dans La Tete. if you want to be accurate), Bullet To The Head is a straight-up action flick. Stallone strolls through the carnage as a mean, no-nonsense person who is roped into doing some honest-to-goodness heroics after he’s double-crossed by the mob. Seeking revenge, he pairs up with a technophilic cop, forming an unlikely - if generically made-for-measure - alliance to bring the villains to justice.

Stallone’s hitman (Jimmy Bobo) and Sung Kang’s Korean-American greenhorn Detective Kwon share good chemistry. A scene where Bobo lectures Kwon about the many ways that he could use the smartphone (which the cop had been using all along as an exposition device) as an offensive weapon, is very interesting.

Jason Momoa as the unscrupulous hitman hot on the tail of our heroes is interesting to watch. Looking like Brandon Lee on steroids, Momoa cuts a mean figure, hulking and glaring in some of the film’s better scenes of wanton destruction. It’s a cat-and-mouse relationship that builds towards a final showdown. It is Stallone versus Momoa. One on one. They’re going to fight to the death with axes.

Nevertheless, Stallone is at home here, and his weathered features tell a tale that the script can’t hope to capture. When the film cuts to a portrait from his younger days, we see a Rocky-era headshot.

The movie Bullet to the Head is great to watch. So don’t miss it when it gets released on 1 February 2013.