Bullet to the Head doesn't try to adapt its star to 2013. It just pretends that we're still living in 1986. And for 91 minutes, it just about works.
– Chris Nashawaty,
Entertainment Weekly,
1 Feb 2013
rotten:
Sylvester Stallone shoots people in the face. That's it for subtext in this formula action swill. Why do I sound like I should expect more. Because the credits list the director as Walter Hill.
– Peter Travers,
Rolling Stone,
2 Feb 2013
rotten:
It's a series of fight scenes that build to a climax that is surprisingly unsatisfying in the way it ultimately plays out.
– James Berardinelli,
ReelViews,
3 Feb 2013
fresh:
On its own degenerate terms, the movie works.
– David Edelstein,
New York Magazine/Vulture,
4 Feb 2013
rotten:
Hill's eye for back alley scuzz is as strong as ever, but the story, adapted from a French graphic novel by Alexis Nolent, is so die-cut it gives neither him nor Stallone anything to work with.