Bullet to the Head 2012

Tom Russo, Boston Globe: It's just director Walter Hill tweaking his formula from the "48 Hrs." franchise. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: No one here seems to notice that there's not much going on, including Mr. Stallone, which somehow makes it easier to watch. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: By the end I could have used a Bulleit to the mouth. Read more

Scott Bowles, USA Today: [Its] sole redeeming quality is that it ends. Eventually. Read more

Soren Anderson, Seattle Times: Fans of generic genre action will get their money's worth. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Hill works his usual magic on the big confrontations -- the punches hit so hard that the sound of ax handles clacking isn't much blunter -- but elevating a generic piece of future cable-filler isn't the same as salvaging it. Read more

Barbara VanDenburgh, Arizona Republic: An unapologetic rock 'em, sock 'em rumble of exploding squibs and bourbon bottles, the film could just as easily have been titled "Guns, Boobs and Booze." Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Hill's eye for back alley scuzz is as strong as ever, but the story, adapted from a French graphic novel by Alexis Nolent, is so die-cut it gives neither him nor Stallone anything to work with. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The style here - hairline-to-chin close-ups, nervous, jacked-up editing - isn't Hill at his best. But the movie has a certain grungy panache ... Read more

Adam Graham, Detroit News: All sorts of blockheaded action thrillers rolled into one, with occasional mentions of "flash drives" so you know it's not actually a script from 1986. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: Bullet to the Head doesn't try to adapt its star to 2013. It just pretends that we're still living in 1986. And for 91 minutes, it just about works. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, Film.com: Cut together like a beer commercial on poorly lit cheap video without much panache. Read more

Jordan Mintzer, Hollywood Reporter: A hard-hitting exercise in beefy, brainless fun... Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: "Bullet to the Head" is an adrenaline shot to your movie memory if the blunt, gleefully dumb, no-nonsense ways of '80s-style action flicks are your nostalgia drug of choice. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: If it doesn't exactly break new ground, Bullet to the Head reminds you of the pleasures of a genre that today is exploited primarily for comedy or satire. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: The magic is in the details, from the little surprises to the colorful casting. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: The plot fails to deliver a single surprise ... and the characterizations are thin even by the standards of the tough-guy genre. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Yup, it's Sylvester Stallone, back for another round as an aging action-movie star. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Entertaining if nonsensical ... Read more

David Hiltbrand, Philadelphia Inquirer: Bullet to the Head indicates that we're rapidly approaching an era of big-bang movies with stars on mobility scooters. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It's a series of fight scenes that build to a climax that is surprisingly unsatisfying in the way it ultimately plays out. Read more

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: This is the kind of brainless action movie Sylvester Stallone would have starred in circa 1985. That it stars a Stallone who's closer to 70 than 60 is just ... weird. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Sylvester Stallone shoots people in the face. That's it for subtext in this formula action swill. Why do I sound like I should expect more. Because the credits list the director as Walter Hill. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: In "Bullet to the Head" violence is abrupt, shattering and consequential. It's not for laughs. It's graphic and unsettling, and it makes us feel uneasy, as we should, about the world the characters inhabit. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The Geritol action genre lumbers on in the lackluster "Bullet to the Head," starring Sylvester Stallone, or at least a beef jerky replica. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Even by contemporary standards, this is a brutal and stupid movie. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Stallone can still be entertaining, but here he's got no character to play, nothing fun to say, and the craziest hair/hairpiece/scalp growth this side of John Travolta. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: Residual affection for the talent and a certain '80s nostalgia will make this amenable to some, but, in all honesty, it's not up to much. Read more

Jay Weissberg, Variety: To claim the dialogue is written to comfort the narratively challenged would be mere quibbling, as the pic's chief pleasure lies in its store of funny lines, which Stallone tosses off with genuine brio. Read more

Chuck Wilson, Village Voice: Stallone looks great (even if his face doesn't quite move when he talks), while Hill brings lean economy to the film's bloody, unapologetic mayhem. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: On its own degenerate terms, the movie works. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Plays like such a floundering exercise in macho overcompensation that you almost feel sorry for it. Almost. Read more