Review
THE RUNDOWN
Starring Seann William Scott, The Rock and Christopher Walken
Now playing
Check listings
Move over Arnie. Step aside Sly. There’s a new kid on the block and his name is The Rock.
Actor Peter Berg (Copland, The Last Seduction) takes his seat in the director’s chair for the second time, following up his very dark comedy Very Bad Things. His new film, The Rundown, pairs wrestler-turned-actor The Rock with Sean William Scott in a buddy action flick to end all action flicks.
The story (not that it matters) follows Beck (The Rock), a hired goon who wants out of the criminal lifestyle, but is prepared to do "one last job" to get the money to finance his dream life. This one last job leads him to a Brazilian jungle where he must locate and return Travis (Scott), a Stanford drop-out turned treasure hunter. Throw in a priceless ancient relic, Christopher Walken as a Kurtz-like, too-cool-for-cool bad guy, and a dash of crazy kung-fu fighting Brazilian rebels, and you’ve got yourself an action flick!
When I first heard that this film was an action romp featuring a pigeon-holed, teen gross-out artist playing opposite a professional wrestler (whose previous acting credits required him to be little more then a walking corpse), I feared I would be trashing yet another film – giving further validation to the notion that I’d become a pretentious film snob.
But this film was my salvation. The Rock was quick to quash these expectations in the opening scene when I witnessed a man, with all the screen-presence of Arnold, confidently delivering lines with the fluid natural ease of a veteran leading man (maybe I’m being a little over-zealous, but he was able to run his syllables together). Scott also delivers as the film’s main source of comic relief, but does so in a role that will free him from the career-threatening shackles of his party boy typecasting.
The film’s success lies in the lighthearted, self-aware style used in addressing the standard action clichés and conventions that abound in this genre, while at the same time avoiding an outright parody. This allows the audience to be completely engrossed in the stylishly surreal action of mammoth proportions. Think Commando, Indiana Jones, Apocalypse Now and Jackie Chan all rolled into one. It’s fast, it’s loud, it’s completely unrealistic – and baby, it rocks! |
Copyright ©2003 FFWD. All rights reserved.