BULLET TO THE HEAD (15)

Action/Thriller. Sylvester Stallone, Sung Kang, Jason Momoa, Sarah Shahi, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Christian Slater, Jon Seda. Director: Walter Hill

Last week, Arnold Schwarzenegger returned to the big screen with a bang, demonstrating that he has no intention of growing old gracefully.

His muscle-bound rival, Sylvester Stallone, who will be 67 in July, attempts the same feat in Walter Hill’s violent thriller.

Based on the graphic novel Du Plomb Dans La Tete, Bullet To The Head is testosterone-fuelled tosh peppered with bone-crunching action sequences that allow the leading man to play to his strengths: grimace, flex his muscles and growl an array of one-liners without a flicker of emotion. The explosions and splatter promised by the title are disappointingly thin on the ground, leaving us wanting far more than either Hill or screenwriter Alessandro Camon deliver.

Bruising fights almost get our adrenaline pumping but the narrative is flimsy and the characters are poorly sketched, so there is no compelling reason to invest emotions in Stallone’s tortured hero as he embarks on his suicidal crusade for vengeance.

Tattooed hit man Jimmy Bobo (Sylvester Stallone) and partner Louis Blanchard (Jon Seda) kill a corrupt ex-cop as instructed before celebrating in a New Orleans bar where hulking assassin Keegan (Jason Momoa) stabs Louis and badly injures Jimmy in a bathroom brawl.

Hungry for revenge, Jimmy tracks down people who could have betrayed him and Louis. All paths seem to lead to a powerful property developer, Robert Nkomo Borel (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje).

Meanwhile, strait-laced detective Taylor Kwon (Sung Kang) arrives in New Orleans to apprehend Jimmy. The two men are forced to work together when Jimmy’s daughter Lisa (Sarah Shahi) is abducted by Keegan.

Bullet To The Head splutters and wheezes through 91 uninspired minutes, putting Stallone through the physical wringer in well-choreographed skirmishes.

A couple of one-liners elicit a wry smile but most of the dialogue falls flat and the final act falters in the absence of any genuine concern from Stallone’s hit man about the wellbeing of his daughter.

Christian Slater savours a cameo as a sleazy middleman who discovers that crossing Jimmy comes at a hefty price.