The Rundown
So I gone to see the Rundown this weekend and I'm writing this review a day later. I usually write them as soon as I get back and this flick is rapidly fading due to my short-term memory problem. So I better get cracking on writing stuff before it floats away until I see it on the video shelves reminding me that it exists.
First off, The Rock is a star. I like The Rock. I've never watched The Rock wrestle and hadn't seen The Rock in a movie before. But I always kind of liked The Rock. The Rock seems nice. And I like The Rock's old catch phrase 'Can you smell what The Rock is cooking?' I think that's funny. The Rock has a weird looking face. The Rock is stocky. The Rock looks like he could beat me up like no problem, but I get the feeling The Rock would know how to pull his punch just enough to knock me out without overdoing it. That's nice too. Some of these guys you could see getting carried away and try to mash up my face. But I think The Rock is a standup guy. I am basing this opinion on nothing.
Anyway, I went to see The Rundown. It was either Rundown or Underworld or that 'Duplex' movie which looks like puke. So The Rundown was it. I was kind of psyched for it too. It's been a long time since I've seen a straight action movie. I knew that Stiffler was in the movie. But I didn't know that the Christopher Walken was in it too until I saw the poster walking in. That was a nice little boost of psyched.
This movie started off as a different movie altogether. The first scene was The Rock busting heads in some club in LA or something. It was all graphically crazy and flashing directorially flashy flash. Then it flew off to the jungle and stayed there. I got the feeling that originally the whole movie was supposed to take place in LA and they shot the first scene and then some studio exec read a report that 'the jungle' pulls big numbers and told them to move the movie to 'the jungle' and the writer was like... 'But my script... it takes place in... LA...' and the exec was like, 'No it doesn't.' and then walked away.
Anyway, I liked this movie. It was stupid. It was fun. It had funny. It got a huge boost from Walken. There's just something about this guy that lights up a whole movie. I almost can't hear a word he says because I'm too busy staring at him. I'm never sure if he's funny or scary or tripping out full time or what. This movie is worth seeing for him alone and he deserves a Best Supporting Actor nomination. The Rock is the The Rock. He has a good time with what he has physically. And he's not a bad actor. He has a personality and is willing to look silly. He proves here that he is the next big action star. I mean who else would it be? Vin?
I realize I'm rambling so I'll wrap this up. The weak link in this movie is Stiffler. I like this guy alot but this was a forced 'little buddy' role that never clicked. And seeing him run from bullets and jump toward us from an explosion was a stretch. They really tried to franchise-forcefeed him and The Rock together. But it didn't work. Stiffler is funny but he's not a comic relief fallguy. He just adds funnier to what's already funny.
Three Good Things About This Movie
- The fight scenes had a fresh element of acrobatics that were coolio.
- Walken walks around, talks around and looks around.
- There's a Scottish dude in the movie that babbles frantic funny.
Three Bad Things About This Movie
- The director sometimes tried to hard to be all 'style-y director-y'.
- Occasionally characters acted far out of character and certain instances
stretched too too far from reality.
- The movie had an unshakable undercurrent of too dumb.
All in all this is a respectable flick. It goes for entertainment and succeeds without a problem. I smell what it cooks. It refuses to let you get bored and Walken and The Rock give plenty of action and funny and spectacle. But next time, instead of Stiffler, they should go for a more freakish sideshow guy... then just kill him off in the end. Because The Rock is good enough to walk alone ...from circus to circus.
Until we're ready to bodyslam him into the garbage.