Bullet to the Head
Film Review by Kam Williams

Sylvester Stallone is the only movie star to be #1 at the box-office in five straight decades, a record stretching from Rocky in the Seventies through last summer’s action hit The Expendables 2. And judging by Bullet to the Head, the gracefully-aging matinee idol need not retire to a rocking chair any time soon.

This riveting revenge thriller was directed by the legendary Walter Hill who, back in 1982, brilliantly cast Eddie Murphy in his big screen debut opposite Nick Nolte in 48 Hours. Here, his inspired pairing of Stallone and relative-newcomer Sung Kang as unlikely-buddies proves to be equally entertaining.

Based on Alexis Nolent’s graphic novel of the same name, Bullet to the Head revolves around two tough guys from opposite sides of the law who grudgingly team up to settle a score with a common adversary. Jimmy Bobo (Stallone) is a hit man operating in New Orleans whose protégé (Jon Seda) has just been gutted in a bar by a goon with a Bowie knife (Jason Momoa), while. Taylor Kwon (Kang) is a cop from Washington, DC in town to investigate the murder of his partner (Holt McCallany).

As it turns out, both slayings were ordered by Morel (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) an ambitious mobster who will stop at nothing in his quest for control of the Crescent City’s crime rackets. Because so many corrupt police and politicians are already in cahoots with Morel, double-crossed Detective Kwon almost ends-up dead when he tries to enlist the assistance of the local authorities in solving his pal’s slaying.

That betrayal leads him to reluctantly forge an unholy alliance with Jimmy. Together, they proceed to embark on a bloody rampage, dispensing a brutal brand of vigilante justice to the henchmen running interference for the ruthless Morel. Besides creating major mayhem, however, the two share many moments of levity during disagreements over about what weapons and tactics to employ.

Streetwise Jimmy repeatedly relies on his instincts and brute force, shooting first and asking questions never, an approach which grates on tech-savvy Kwon dependent on his cell phone and the internet. Kwon also finds time to develop a romantic interest in Jimmy’s estranged daughter (Sarah Shahi), an attractive tattoo artist with a parlor in a seedy neighborhood.

Still, make no mistake, this action-oriented affair is all about exacting vengeance and escalating body counts, and it won’t disappoint diehard Stallone fans in that regard. Vintage Sly in his best outing since Cop Land!

Excellent (4 stars)

Rated R for profanity, nudity, drug use, graphic violence and bloody images

Running time: 91 minutes

Distributor: Warner Brothers

To see a trailer for Bullet to the Head, visit

Sly Stallone
The “Bullet to the Head” Interview
with Kam Williams

Sylvester Stallone has been known worldwide as a true screen legend since creating the title role in the seminal 1976 Oscar-winning Best Picture “Rocky,” for which he also wrote the screenplay. Over the course of his long career, he has been recognized for his work as an actor, writer and director.

A cultural phenomenon, “Rocky” grew into a six-film franchise, successfully spanning four decades. He wrote, directed and starred in “Rocky II, III and IV,” and wrote and starred in “Rocky V.” Stallone brought the character’s story to a close in 2006 with the critical and box office hit “Rocky Balboa,” which he also wrote and directed. That year, to commemorate one of the most iconic scenes in motion picture history, a bronze statue of Rocky Balboa was placed at the foot of the now-famous steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum—called the “Rocky steps”—at a dedication ceremony presided over by the mayor.

Beginning with the 1982 blockbuster “First Blood,” Stallone has also embodied another indelible character: John Rambo. Following that film, for which he also wrote the screenplay, he wrote and starred in “Rambo: First Blood Part II” and “Rambo III.” In 2008, he directed, wrote and starred in “Rambo,” which continued the saga of the scarred Vietnam vet more than 25 years after his screen introduction.

Stallone more recently wrote and directed perhaps his most ambitious project to date, the action thriller “The Expendables,” in which he also led an all-star cast, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Jason Statham, Mickey Rourke, Jet Li and Dolph Lundgren. The film opened at number one in August 2010, making Stallone the only actor to open a film at number one in five consecutive decades. In 2012, he co-wrote and starred in “The Expendables 2,” which reunited the cast, this time under the direction of Simon West.

Upcoming, Stallone is set to star with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the action thriller “The Tomb,” and then stars opposite Robert De Niro in “Grudge Match.” In addition, he wrote and is producing “Homefront,” directed by Gary Fleder and starring Jason Statham and James Franco.

Born in New York City, Stallone attended school in suburban Philadelphia, where he first started acting and also became a star football player. He then spent two years instructing at the American College of Switzerland in Geneva. Returning to the United States, he enrolled as a drama major at the University of Miami and also began to write.

But Stallone left college to pursue an acting career in New York City where the jobs did not come easily. During this period, he turned more and more to writing, churning out screenplays while waiting for his acting break. The opportunity came in 1974 when he was cast as one of the leads in “The Lords of Flatbush.”

With the money earned from the film, Stallone moved to Hollywood, where he landed a few small roles in television and movies. He also continued to pursue writing. Fighter Rocky Balboa was born in a script Stallone wrote in longhand. Several producers offered to buy the screenplay, but wanted to cast a name star in the title role. Despite being nearly broke, he held fast in his determination to play the part, and his perseverance was finally rewarded and the rest, as they say, is history.

Kam Williams: Hey, Mr. Stallone. I’m so honored to be speaking with you.

Sly Stallone: Thank you very much.

KW: Thanks for the opportunity.

SS: Sure, Kam.

KW: I asked my readers if they had any questions for you. I won’t be able to get to them all but I must say that I was very impressed with the uniform reverence they have for you.

SS: That’s great. Thank you.

KW: Let me start by asking what interested you in Bullet to the Head?

SS: Well, I liked the idea of a very simple story with a dark morality. There’s  humor in that later on, but you start with the basic idea that you have two total opposites having to work together for a common cause who you know are going to have to take each other out at the very end, at least that was the original premise. I also really liked the idea of doing it with Walter Hill after the first director bowed out. That made the project especially enticing.

KW: Was that because of his track record with unlikely-buddy flicks like Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte in 48 Hours?

SS: Yes, and also because he’s kind of gone down the same path as I did. There was a period when I was pretty much untouchable for about 8 or 9 years until I got a big break with Joe Roth when he helped produce Rocky Balboa. That was a big, big, long shot. Everybody thought it was a joke, but it worked. [Chuckles] I think there’s a lot of music left to play in a lot of these old instruments. And I felt that Walter Hill is a pro at this genre, yet he’s not getting the opportunity. So, when I saw the opportunity present itself, I decided, “If he does the movie, I’ll do it.” And it worked out that way. 

KW: Documentary director Kevin Williams says: Your sticking to your guns when you wrote and then wanted to star in Rocky inspired me to do the same when many told me I couldn't make my documentary film, "Fear Of A Black Republican." As a matter of fact, I thank you for your great inspiration in my film’s credits. Do you have any idea how many filmmakers and actors you have inspired and does that experience with making Rocky still come into play for you today? 

SS: Actually I don’t, Kevin, but I’m very flattered whenever I hear stories like this, or about a student who has written a graduate thesis on Rocky or Rambo. I’m always surprised to see that the films had that kind of impact. Having that sort of faith in something that only you truly understand and believe in is still prevalent today. If I just know in my gut that a film is going to work, I’ll fight to the death over it, and I convince myself. When a movie is purely a money job, the film doesn’t have the same sort of intensity, and the audience almost senses it, at least that’s the way I perceive it. So, yeah, the idea is to do something that you truly, truly believe in. I understand that a lot of other actors don’t have a choice. They have to eat so they need to work and they’ll do films that they’re not so proud of. But I’ve been fortunate enough to be given a second wind, so I try to pick projects I know will provide the audience the kind of escapism they want from me.    

KW: Larry Greenberg asks: How did you develop your character, Jimmy Bobo?

SS: I decided to approach it this way. I, Sylvester Stallone, am really not much like Rocky. Rocky is a much more ethical, moral person than I am. [Chuckles] He’s really a great guy. And Rambo is a much darker person than I am, and much more reserved and withdrawn. I thought, let me try something different. What if I, Sylvester Stallone, were transported into the world of hit men? In other words, what if I were the hit man but just played myself. So, that’s the way I approached this character. I wanted to be as casual and comfortable with the character as possible. I said, if Sylvester Stallone were a hit man, this is how he would be. So, pretty much what you see up there is Sylvester Stallone as a hit man. Rather than trying to create a character that was different from me, I tried to make the character the same as me, and just add the story. I don’t know if that makes sense to you. It’s like as if you were going to play a hit man and asked me, “What do I do?” And I went, “No, no, you Kam, you just have to play yourself.” It would be your personality, but you would play a hit man. That would be an interesting choice. That’s different. That’s unusual. So, this was the first time I’ve ever said, “Let me just be myself, but pretend I’m a hit man.”

KW: Larry also asks: How did you go about create the father-daughter dynamic with Lisa [played by Sarah Shahi]?

SS: Having children, they tend to be very angry, if you’re not there growing up. Of course, he was never there for her growing up, and she has done everything that’s rebellious. So, I tried to think how I would approach that in my own life. I decided that he would be a little remorseful, but he’d have a little resentment because she’d ask for a favor every time he came to see her. When she decided to be a tattoo artist and to cover herself in tattoos that weren’t exactly the most flattering, I realized she was doing it out of spite and for attention, and as a way of getting back at me. So, there are all sorts of possible approaches to developing that kind of relationship. 

KW: Is there a message you want people to take away from the film?

SS: That a tiger never really changes his stripes and that Jimmy Bobo is what he is, without regret. But he’s not an amoral person, since he only takes out, as he puts it, “the hard to get at stains.” That his job. He takes out the trash. In effect, he’s doing a service. He’s a people person. He removes the bad people.

KW: Marcia Evans says: I've been a fan of yours since Rocky. I was particularly blown away by your outstanding performance in Copland. My question is: Have you considered getting into the fitness industry and opening a chain of gyms?  

SS: [Laughs] I thought about that for a long time, Marcia, but it’s such a competitive business. I tried a line of vitamins once, but that didn’t go over well, because I didn’t realize how hard and time-consuming it was. So, I decided to leave it to the people who are truly dedicated to that 24 hours a day.   

KW: Are you still an art collector?

SS: Yes, an avid art collector. [Chuckles] In fact, every day, I’ll read a chapter of some art book. I don’t know why. It’s just a habit.

KW: Film student Jamaal Green asks who is your favorite director and how has he or she influenced your work?

SS: Hmm… It’s not a modern director. To me, the greatest director ever was Elia Kazan whom many of your readers probably never even heard of. But he did On the Waterfront with Brando, and he did East of Eden. He made some truly epic, monumental films, when no one else was really doing it. His contemporaries were making relatively lighthearted movies. I’d say he was far and away the best. Everyone today is pretty well much derivative of Kazan. So, to me, he was the real master.

KW: Editor/Legist Patricia Turnier says: I am a fan of your work since childhood. Being versatile and taking control of your career in show business surely helped you succeed and achieve longevity. What advice do you have for aspiring actors who want to follow in your footsteps? 

SS: In this day and age, if you’re aspiring to be an actor, and you’re putting all your eggs in one basket, you could be disappointed. I started out as an actor, but I forced myself to be a writer, even though I wasn’t very good at it and had never written. I don’t think I ever passed an English course in my life. My first 8 to 10 scripts were pretty horrendous, but I stayed at it, stayed at it, and stayed at it, until I eventually found a voice and a subject like Rocky that people were interested in. So, I recommend that you go out and try to be as versatile as possible: writer, actor, producer and especially director. Look at Ben Affleck. He’s literally had a career reversal. I tell so many young actors that if I hadn’t written, directed and acted, I’d have been long gone. I would not have made it out of the Nineties.   

KW: Patricia also asks: Are you interested in writing a memoir which gives us more of look into your life than Sly Moves did?

SS: [LOL] I don’t know. It all depends on how deeply I’d have to delve into it. I’d be willing to do it, if I only had to write about what inspires and motivates me. But I couldn’t go into the personal aspects of my family, because I’m way too private. But my career, absolutely.

KW: Kate Newell asks: Would you ever consider running for public office?

SS: No, I talked to Arnold [Schwarzenegger] about running for office, and he said he loved it. But he is also much more of a people person. You have to have an almost boundless reservoir of energy and interest to enter politics because quite often it’s thankless and fruitless and you can’t accomplish much. But he loved it. I don’t have that. I’m much more of an introvert.    

KW: Harriet Pakula-Teweles asks: How much of an offer they couldn't refuse did you make to assemble the cast of matinee idols, not once, but twice, for The Expendables?

SS: [LOL] This was an idea I got thinking about how there’s strength in numbers. I would always see these Rock & Roll revivals comprised of 25 different bands that had once been very famous, but weren’t anymore. However, the name value was still there. I said to myself, “Why don’t I do this with actors?” Every one of these guys had had phenomenal careers but had fallen on hard times, including myself. I thought that together this might generate the same sort of interest that fans have when they go to see a Rock & Roll revival. Instead, they’d be going to see a revival of action stars. I didn’t know if it was going to work, but I thought of it as an experiment. And since I had known them for years, I could call on favors, and all of them could trust me that I wasn’t going to embarrass them. And that’s how I was able to make it happen, Harriet.   

KW: Thanks for a great interview, Mr. Stallone, and best of luck with the film.

SS: Thank you, Kam. I appreciate it. Bye.

To see a trailer for Bullet to the Head, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzcvSoCqq1w  

One Night Stand: Creating a Play in a Day
Film Review by Kam Williams

Anyone who grew up watching The Little Rascals remembers that some of the best episodes were where the kids attempted to put on a show, like the time they did Romeo & Juliet, and Buckwheat had to serve as a last-minute stand-in for Darla as Juliet, much to Alfalfa’s consternation. Well, if you can appreciate that sort of impromptu entertainment, then you are likely to enjoy One Night Stand: Creating a Play in a Day.

Co-directed by Trish Dalton and Elisabeth Sperling, the movie chronicles a Herculean, coordinated effort to write, cast, compose, rehearse and perform four musicals in less than a day. And it’s all for a good cause, too, The Exchange, a charity which supports innovative theater artists.

The movie stars a number of recognizable stage and screen actors, most notably, Richard Kind, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Cheyenne Jackson, Tracie Toms and SNL alumna Rachel Dratch. And it also prominently features the playwrights and composers operating under pressure to produce scripts and scores, respectively, with little time to revise.

They began working at 8 PM and by 8 AM they handed over a quartet of freshly-minted musicals to the directors and cast members. What ensues is a sort of opening night bedlam, but greatly amplified, since they only have a few hours to memorize lines, lyrics and melodies.

Initially, I was admittedly a little put off by the assorted backstage banter and hysteria, especially since I was more than a little cynical about the ambitious endeavor’s prospects. Yet, all was forgiven when the pieces of the puzzle ultimately came together by show time. I couldn’t believe how polished and professional the final product was.

Rome might not have been built in a day, but One Night Stand proves that a captivating, Broadway-quality musical can be mounted in 24 hours. Who knew?

Very Good (3 stars)

Unrated

Running time: 74 minutes

Distributor: Fathom Events

Studio: Incubation Films

To see a trailer for One Night Stand, visit

Special One-Night Event Nationwide:

One Night Stand will be in theaters on Jan 30, 2013 at 7:30pm local time

Movie 43
Film Review by Kam Williams

Movie 43 is a shallow shocksploitation flick which revels in raunchy lowbrow humor. What is supposed to elevate this terminally-crude comedy above your typical bottom-feeder is its A-list cast topped by Academy Award-winners Halle Berry and Kate Winslet, as well as Oscar-nominees Uma Thurman, Naomi Watts, Hugh Jackman and Terrence Howard.

However, the picture fails miserably in this regard, as it merely ends-up dragging the entire ensemble into the mud. This scatterplot sketch flick features a dozen directors, including Peter Farrelly (There's Something about Mary), Brett Ratner (Rush Hour trilogy), Bob Odenkirk (The Brothers Solomon), to name a few.

The film is essentially a series of skits being pitched by a writer (Dennis Quaid) to a skeptical Hollywood producer (Greg Kinnear). After Charlie sets up each scene, the screen cuts away to an enactment of a fully fleshed-out production of his idea.

For example, the first vignette, "The Catch," revolves around a socialite named Beth's (Winslet) blind date from Hell with Davis (Jackman), a successful, eligible bachelor with a distracting drawback, namely, a hairy scrotum hanging from his neck in place of an Adam's apple. The sight gag serves as fodder for a running joke since Beth, inexplicably, is the only person in the restaurant able to see the deformity.

So, while Davis looks perfectly normal to everybody else, the poor woman finds herself forced to suffer such indignities as posing for a picture with sweaty gonads in her face. The subject matter goes from gross-out fare to incest and pedophilia in the next segment, "Homeschooled," which is about a mother's (Watts) taking her son's (Jeremy Allen White) virginity. Worse, the 13 year-old's perverted dad (Liev Schreiber) comes on to the kid, too.

Halle Berry's breasts co-star in "Truth or Dare," another bit about a blind date. In this tacky tableau, her character first exposes herself after accepting a challenge to make guacamole with her bosom. The oversexed exhibitionist bares her gargantuan mammaries again at the end of the evening, even though she's supposedly not attracted to Asian men.

Dating is also the theme of "Super Hero Speed Dating" where Batman's (Jason Sudeikis) sidekick Robin (Justin Long) attempts to charm both Super Girl (Kristen Bell) and Wonder Woman (Leslie Bibb). And "Middleschool Date" milks its mean-spirited mirth from a 7th grader's (Chloe Moretz) being mercilessly teased about getting her first menstrual period while sharing a kiss with a classmate (Jimmy Bennett) she has a crush on.

More creepy than comical, Movie 43 represents a disgusting, cinematic descent into depravity destined to leave its victims, sitting slack-jawed and speechless in stunned disbelief.

Poor (0 stars)

Rated R for violence, drug use, pervasive profanity, graphic sexuality, frontal nudity, crude humor and coarse dialogue.

Running time: 90 minutes

Distributor: Relativity Media

To see a trailer for Movie 43, visit

Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary
Film Review by Kam Williams

Wesley Cook, aka Mumia Abu-Jamal, was born on April 24, 1954 in the City of Brotherly Love. There, he founded a branch of the Black Panthers at the age of 15 after being kicked by a cop at a rally for segregationist presidential candidate George Wallace.

After attending college in Vermont, he returned to Philly to pursue a career in journalism. He proceeded to provide a voice for the voiceless as a politically-progressive reporter while simultaneously moonlighting as a cab driver, until the fateful night in 1981 when he and his brother William crossed paths with a police officer named Daniel Faulkner.

The cop was killed during the traffic stop, when the bullets from a gun registered to Mumia were emptied into him at close range. Faulkner managed to get off a few shots, wounding Mumia.

At trial, the jury deliberated only a few hours in what seemed like an open-and-shut case, and the defendant was convicted and subsequently handed a death sentence. However, because of Mumia's previously clean record and his having served as such an articulate mouthpiece for the poor and disenfranchised, he soon became something of an international cause célèbre.

Was he indeed a murderer or had he been railroaded to prison because of his radical views? The left and the right would disagree strongly on the issue. Eventually his sentence was commuted to life with no parole, and the fundamental question of guilt or innocence was essentially left unanswered.

The same can be said after viewing Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary, a documentary which doesn't seek so much to clear the controversial figure's name as to showcase his intellect and longstanding defiance of The Establishment.

To director Stephen Vittoria's credit, he hauls out a long line of luminaries like Dr. Cornel West, Ruby Dee, Hurricane Carter, Alice Walker, Angela Davis, Dick Gregory and Amy Goodman to take turns heaping praise on his sympathetic subject.

While their heartfelt testimonials leave no doubt about Mumia's commitment to the struggle and considerable talents as a writer, none of them were eyewitnesses to the murder. Thus, this is not a biopic which seeks to poke holes in the prosecution's case or to indict the State of Pennsylvania for a rush to judgment.

Rather, it merely endeavors to highlight the squandered potential of a gifted, if fatally-flawed individual. Love him or hate him, no one watching this inconclusive piece can deny that Mumia has a way with words.

A film that wisely leaves the damning evidence on the back burner in favor of focusing on everything about Mumia Abu-Jamal except for what exactly transpired at the corner of 13th and Locust in the wee hours of December 9, 1981.

Excellent (4 stars)

Unrated

In English and Spanish with subtitles

Running time: 120 minutes

Distributor: First Run Features

To see a trailer for Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary, visit

Opens February 1st at Cinema Village in New York City, with special appearances by the filmmaker and people appearing in the film.