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 years old in July, attempts the same feat in Walter Hill’s relentlessly 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.

“Here’s the story – this is the way it went down,” confides tattooed hit man Jimmy Bobo (Sylvester Stallone) shortly before he and partner Louis Blanchard (Jon Seda) kill a corrupt ex-cop as instructed.

They celebrate in a New Orleans bar where hulking assassin Keegan (Jason Momoa) stabs Louis and badly injures Jimmy in a furious bathroom brawl.

Hungry for revenge, Jimmy tracks down people in the criminal food chain 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), who is out of his Washington DC jurisdiction, 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 and held hostage in a cavernous warehouse that provides the film with a familiar setting for the final showdown.

Kang enjoys a few fist fights, while Christian Slater savours a cameo as a sleazy middleman who discovers that crossing Jimmy comes at a hefty price

Read more: Journal Live http://www.journallive.co.uk/culture-newcastle/film-reviews/2013/01/31/review-bullet-to-the-head-trailer-72703-32717836/#ixzz2KcWrqd9V