The Rundown

December 10, 2004

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 90 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The Rundown is the latest movie to star the most electrifying man in entertainment. We are of course talking about the jabroni beating, pie eating, trail blazing, eyebrow raising, stronger than a bear, faster than a buck, man known as The Rock.

The Rundown

If this sounds like another language to you, then you probably have not watched wrestling in the past few years. The Rock has a great look, loads of charisma and a talent that stretchs far beyond laying the smackdown on rootie poo candy asses. His foray into movies has seemingly been inevitable. In The Rundown he gets a chance to show what he can really do in a role where he has to pull off action, comedy and a lot of dialogue. In our opinion, he comes through wonderfully. He’s at least as good as the material he has to work with.

The material here is an action comedy directed by Peter Berg, who’s only other feature movie was the appropriately named Very Bad Things. However, he does have a strong supporting cast to work with including Seann William Scott, who you probably know better as Stiffler from the American Pie movies, and Christopher Walken, always one of our favorites. Scott is right at home playing the comedic side kick, and well there just is no better comedic villain than Christopher Walken.

The storyline here is simple. The Rock plays “Beck”, a “retrieval specialist”. If you owe someone money, he’s not the guy you wanna see walk in the door. He’s sent to retrieve Travis, played by Scott, from the Amazon and bring him home to his father. Problem is that Travis has located a very valuable artifact and the locals aren’t willing to let him go til he shows them where it is. Although the action is almost non-stop, there is a variety in the type of action thanks to the jungle settings and variety of opponents presented to Beck.

The Rundown works very well for exactly what it is. If you’re looking for some action and comedy, you’ll likely enjoy this movie even if you’ve never seen a pro rasslin’ match in your life. If you’re a fan of The Rock, this is a must see. Rating it objectively, we give it a very strong 4 stars, and it flirts with being a 5. We definitely smell what The Rock is cooking.

Posted by Billy Bob | Filed Under 4 Stars, Action, Christopher Walken, Ernie Misko, PG-13, Rosario Dawson, Seann William Scott, The Rock, Theatrical