Netflix users are loving an underrated Jason Statham movie this weekend.
We all know the British action legend from the likes of Fast & Furious, Crank and The Expendables, but one of his more forgotten films is currently dominating the streaming giant. According to FlixPatrol, 2013’s Homefront is the number one most popular flick on the platform in the US this Saturday. And ironically, it’s a movie where Statham ditches his natural English accent and plays an all-American type of hero.
The actor stars as Phil Broker, a retired DEA agent and US war vet who’s moved to a quiet Louisiana town with his young daughter to escape his past, but he soon ends up entangled in the town’s own dark secrets – chief among them, local meth drug lord Gator Bodine (James Franco). Kate Bosworth, Winona Ryder, Clancy Brown and Frank Grillo also feature in the Gary Fleder picture, which was written and produced by none other than Sylvester Stallone.
Unfortunately, despite all that talent involved in front of and behind the camera, Homefront didn’t make much of an impression on the box office at the time, earning roughly $50 million on a $22 million budget. Reviews weren’t awful, but weren’t particularly great, either. As the Critics Consensus reads on Rotten Tomatoes: “While it boasts a capable cast, the disappointingly dull Homefront hearkens back to classic action thrillers without adding anything to the genre.”
Viewers are much kinder to it, however. In comparison to its 43% Rotten score, it possesses an Audience rating almost 20% higher at 61%. Likewise, similar to many films that failed to make a splash upon their theatrical release, Homefront is proving to be a hit on Netflix. That’s not much of a surprise, either, as sometimes you just want to spend your Saturday watching Jason Statham breaking jaws from the comfort of your own couch.