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First Hit:  Average Statham thriller where he takes on all comers and wins.

Phil Broker (Jason Statham) is a former DEA agent who is taken on an anonymous life with his daughter in a Louisiana small town.

Being outsiders their behavior is scrutinized and when his daughter Maddy (Izabela Vidovic) punches out a classmate, the kids parents decide to make Broker’s life hell for this indiscretion mayhem ensues. Mayhem is headed by the town Meth cooker Morgan “Gator” Bodine (James Franco). He discovers Broker’s past and gets one of Broker’s convicted prisoners to send people to kill Broker. Assisting Gator is Sheryl Mott (Winona Ryder).

Statham is always solid and here he shows up as usual. It will never win an Oscar doing action films, but he’s very solid. Vidovic is great as the 10 year old daughter. One scene when she is lamenting about her recently past mother is great. Franco is pretty good as a “not all at home” meth cooker. Ryder is either a pretty good actress showing the perfect nervousness as a tweaker, or she just showed up showing her past struggles and put them on the screen – she didn’t look very good. Sylvester Stallone and Chuck Logan wrote the screenplay which was solid. Gary Fielder directed this well-paced action thriller.

Overall: Solid action film.

The Dilemma

First Hit: Although not a great film, I found it amusing and enjoyable to watch.

With Vince Vaughn in a film, you know you are going to get fast talking, sarcasm, and an attempt to make a serious point. In this film the point is, does Ronnie Valentine (played by Vaughn) tell his best friend, Nick Brannen (played by Kevin James) that his wife Geneva (played by Winona Ryder) is having an affair.

Ronnie is living with Beth (played by Jennifer Connelly) who is the films straight character is a chef and is happy living with Ronnie. Nick and Geneva are pushing for Ronnie and Beth to get married saying it is the best thing to do, however when Ronnie discovers that Geneva is having an affair his is at a loss as to what to do. He doesn’t know if he should tell his friend and ends up confronting Geneva and her lover Zip (played by Channing Tatum).

This leads to lots of odd behavior which gives Vaughn a character to act out and non-stop dialogue. Because Ronnie and Nick are partners in a business and their business is at the precipice of making it big, the pressure is on.

Does Ronnie tell his friend of his wife’s affair and risk losing the biggest business deal of their lives?

Vaughn is the same character in every movie he makes, so there is little that is new and yet he does have the capacity to make it watchable. James is also type cast in the same sort of role of funny but insecure guy. It was great to see Ryder again in a primary role. She had the best scene and best performance in a scene when she and Vaughn were in a café and she told him how she was going to lie about her affair. She did what Meg Ryan did for faking an orgasm in “Harry Loves Sally” by acting how she was a victim of a horrible lie by her husband’s best friend. Connelly has a minor role and she was the sane and conscious one in the group. I found myself wanting her to be more involved in the film. Allan Loeb wrote the script and I’m sure Vaughn ad libbed sections of it. Ron Howard directed these actors well and was able to make Vaughn watchable and enjoyable.

Overall: This isn’t a great film but it is fun enough to watch without wondering where it is going or how it is going to end.