Fudgehammer takes in the Rock's THE RUNDOWN...
A Review by `Fudgehammer'
Aint It Cool
Hey folks, Harry here... the trailer for this film felt like a vinyl seat fart on a hot summer's day... Something odd, yet comical, but ultimately a necessary waste of energy and time. Yup, necessary, because while it looked stupid as hell... sometimes ya need stupid as hell. So far, of everything I've seen the Rock in... this is the first one I want to see... Specifically because it looks utterly retarded. But Dwayne looks charming in it. So, what the hell... Arnie made THE VILLAIN before he nailed CONAN THE BARBARIAN... and THE VILLAIN makes me cackle throughout. I'm hoping THE RUNDOWN is about on par with THE VILLAIN.
Greetings Harry,
Went to a screening of The Rock's new action film, The Rundown, which used to be titled Helldorado. I saw the trailer for this awhile ago, and it looked like it might be a fun movie.
The story is pretty simple, The Rock plays Beck, a bounty hunter who wants to retire and open his own restaurant. He has one last job, bring in Travis, the son of a tough bigwig who has The Rock under his thumb. Travis (Sean William Scott) is a young archeologist that's in some South American country, trying to find El Gato del Diablo--The Devil's Cat, an ancient and legendary golden statue. Beck finds out Travis is in the town of El Dorado, which is run by bad guy Hatcher (Christopher Walken), who enslaves the locals into working in his mines. Travis wants the idol, Beck wants Travis, Hatcher wants all three, and Rosario Dawson gets thrown into the mix, as local bar owner Mariana.
The Rock is charismatic, playing up his persona, much like he did in The Scorpion King. He does a good job in this type of movie, competently juggling action and comedy. Sean William Scott does his usual thing, not too different from Stifflerproof Monk. Rosario Dawson is lovely to look at, but there's not much for her to work with here. Christopher Walken totally chews up the scenery as the villain, and seems to enjoy the hell out of it, reminded me of Voight in Anaconda. He has a fun little story about the Tooth Fairy.
With the opening sequence of Beck collecting a bounty in a nightclub, I thought the film would be a cool flick like Roadhouse or Stone Cold, two movies that are ridiculous, but I'll watch whenever I see them on TV. A simple testosterone filled fight fest. (There's a nice little cameo right as Beck enters the club, a passing of the torch maybe?) Beck's opponents, football players, are introduced with stats, and quick edits of their damage on the playing field, almost like a video game or half time promo. The fight that breaks out is done well, but the movie never reaches the cool factor set up in the original 15 minutes. The damage that The Rock inflicts, and receives is very much comic book style, and that's what this movie reminded me of most, an action comic come to life. I remember when Image Comics was in its heyday, it was cool looking art, but not a lot of substance beyond that. That's what he have with The Rundown.
It's directed by Peter Berg, whose Very Bad Things is one of my faves. Not sure what happened here. The editing at times takes on a frenetic MTV/Natural Born Killers style, which was a little grating on the eyes. At other times, the fight scenes have great slo-mo wire work which got huge reactions from the audience, so why break the rest of it up so fast? While The Rock and Sean William Scott have some funny scenes together, there wasn't the chemistry of something like Midnight Run's Deniro and Grodin.
The trailer made me want to see this movie, so if you think the trailer looks dumb, don't go. The bad thing is, if you liked the trailer, you've pretty much seen the movie, since it had all the best bits. If you're a hard core Rock fan, then by all means go and smell what he's cooking.