(Out of 4)
Directed by Peter Berg
Starring The Rock, Seann William Scott, Rosario Dawson, Christopher Walken
Running Time: 90m
Most Interesting Preview: Denzel's "Out of Time" looks fantastic!
Reviewed by: Jason Kolman
Chaka Says: “Chaka smells what The Rock is cooking!”
I know I have a penchant for summarizing a plot in it’s entirety, but for my review of “The Rundown” I would much rather talk about it from a different angle. Let it be known, if “Freddy vs. Jason” was the best movie of the summer, than “The Rundown” is the most entertaining. Strong performances from everyone involved, great camerawork, in your face action and a great sense of humor team up to make the best action-comedy in a long, long time.
The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) stars as Beck, a bounty hunter, more or less, looking to get out of the business and open his own restaurant. His first job is to collect money from a big time football quarterback. After getting a few words of encouragement from Ah-nold (in a silly cameo) the Rock moves in on his prey. He quickly finds that the quarterback is there, along with his entire offensive line. On a funny note, the entire team seemed to consist of XFL refugees, and the football clips shown as the Rock looks at each player would seem to indicate that. After trying to be nice and collect his fee, the Rock goes into the men's room to make a call, telling whoever is on the other end of the line that “they have a chance to repeat this year. I don’t want to hurt them.” Funny stuff.
Hurt them he does. The Rock takes them all out in the first of many outstanding fight sequences. I’ll talk more about those in a moment. Anyway, the rest of the plot develops around one last hunt for out hero. He is to go to the Brazil and locate Travis Walker (Scott), the son of the Rock’s boss and bring him back to America. So he goes down to Brazil to do just that. Before finding Walker, he meets Hatcher (Walken in his usual semi-stoned out role). The theater instantly perks up when Walken is on the screen. There is a reason this man is my favorite actor, he is simply the best. You have to giggle just looking at him and that hair. Again, I digress.
Long story short, Hatcher is basically running the entire town via slave labor. The locals dig up the gold, and Hatcher takes 95% of the profits. I believe someone said they made about $0.62 an hour. Travis meanwhile, has located a priceless artifact in the jungle that Hatcher wants to get his hands on. So now Beck and Walker have to escape back to their plane while avoiding Hatcher, dealing with horny monkeys, tiny -but dangerous- locals, freedom fighters, bulls, parasites and funky fruit....oh, did I mention there is a bagpipe wielding Scotsman too? Along the way, they team up with Mariana (Dawson), who is a local bartender and also the leader of the freedom fighters. So it all comes down to the big showdown between Beck, Travis, and Mariana versus Hatcher and his gang. What ensues is some of the best action ever seen on film. During all this, Travis must decide what to do with the artifact, called “El Gato”, Beck has to finish the job and get Travis back to America, and Mariana is simply trying to free her people from Hatcher. Can “El Gato” help her to do that? Can Travis come to terms with parting with his priceless find? It’s good stuff.
Let me being by saying that I am NOT the Rock’s biggest fan. I enjoy his stuff in the WWE, but I’m not personally a huge Rocky fan. Once again, however, like he did in “the Scorpion King” he won me over. He’s just so damned likable, it is insane. he has charisma to spare and uses it all in this film. Beck is a tough guy with a soft spot. He hates using guns (“they bring me to a bad place”) and relies mostly on brains and brawn to win his battles. When he is finally forced to pick up a gun late in the film, all hell breaks loose. The Rock has improved in leaps and bounds in terms of looking comfy on screen. He has really arrived this time and I think he has a great shot at being the next big action star. He proves in this film that the can be funny, serious, dangerous and cool all at the same time. The scene where he and Travis are half stoned and being surrounded by monkeys is hilarious (Travis: “Get them away from me!” Beck: (With a huge stoned out lisp - “Go away monkeeths”) Funny stuff again.
Scott is at his best as the sidekick in this one. He is always fun to watch on the screen, he is just a silly looking guy. He got himself in great shape for this film too. I don’t ever remember him looking in that kind of shape. I laughed out loud at his “thunder and lightning” gag, though it did get a bit old after the fourth time he did it. He gets a couple of great moments in the film along with several good ones. It’s good to see him in what is sure to be a blockbuster. He’s got a ton of untapped talent. He can also play serious when he needs to, and that is a plus and will help him as he goes on in his career.
Walken, need I say more? The guy is classic. He gives a five minute monologue about the tooth fairy and some muggers who stole the tooth before she could give him the quarter. It doesn’t make much sense to the locals who don’t speak english. When Walken’s sidekick tries to translate, Walken screams “They have my tooth! Go in and get it back.” If you know Walken, you know exactly what it sounds like. The man isn’t human. He is funny without trying to be and at the same time, pulls of the role with enough menace to be considered the bad guy. With strong performances by Walken and Scott, all The Rock has to do is react and you get instant comedy. Dawson doesn’t really have a whole lot to do in this one. She is simply the damsel in distress, but a good looking one, and she proves she is more than capable of holding her own when it gets down and dirty. Great casting all around.
The fight sequences in this movie are nothing new...and that is a good thing. When I say nothing new, I mean no wire work, no slow mo, edge of your seat, gravity defying action. That crap is all but being shoved down our throats nowadays, ad nauseam. The Rundown delivers straight up action. The people get hit, they fall down, they don’t fly 50 feet in the air and walk on water. Every stunt in this film looked like something that any semi-athletic person pumped full of adrenaline could pull off in real life. Sure, some of the moves have been adapted from the WWE, but they look good on screen. The translation fits nicely. The final action scene, a huge battle in the town is some of the most exciting stuff you’ll ever see on the big screen, with hundreds of cows, massive explosions and bullets flying everywhere. I am reminded of "Commando". Rock dominates the action while Walken watches on. When Walken finally enters the fray, the action slows down to one more comic moment and a great exit for Walken. In the end, everyone gets what they want and the movie ends on a good note.
Peter Berg’s direction is fantastic. He never lets the pace slow down and keeps The Rock on the screen most of the time. You’d be foolish not to, with the draw he is going to be at the box office. You can tel everyone was having fun on this one and not just cashing in a check. it comes off big time on the screen. Berg’s last directorial effort was not that great, but he more than makes up for it with “The Rundown.” His use of camerwork and color composition are great in this one. Take for example, a pull out shot of Beck, Travis and Mariana. They are on a boat, the camera pulls away from them, up, up into the sky, until the boat is a speck on the water, then in one motion, the camera pans slightly and zooms in on the cars following them from above. It was gorgeous!
I may and go see it again, if I have the time, it’s certainly not a waste of money or anything. It is a great popcorn movie if nothing else, and breathes new life into the action-comedy genre. I give it two thumbs up, and A for effort and four stars to boot. I would implore anyone who is at odds with the WWE not to skip this film. Don’t hold a grudge against the guy for the company that he works for. You are only depriving yourself of 90 minutes of great fun. Just do it! You won’t regret it.
(Edit 10/4/03) - I feel I need to make a special reference to Ernie Reyes Jr. I didn't mention him in the reveiw, but it took my mind a while to click. I didn't realize that that is the same Ernie Reyes Jr. from "The Last Electric Knight" and "Sidekicks" as well as "TMNT 2" and "The Last Dragon." The kid's still got it. He is one of the quickest men in Hollywood, not on the Jackie Chan level, but he's still got all the moves. it's good to see he is still getting roles."
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