By Tanya Batson-Savage, Staff Reporter
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson getting the stuffing kicked out of him by a 'rebel' in the action movie 'The Rundown'. - Contributed
TO ENJOY The Rundown, starring 'The Rock', it is best to approach it the same way you would a wrestling match. If you simply accept that what you are about to see is completely unbelievable (or if you are willing to believe everything in defiance of logic), you should have no trouble watching 'The Rock' go bump in the jungle.
Ignore the fact that if a man is hurtled into the top of a tree and then on his way down he hits three branches, he should at least bleed a little. Just hear the thump and enjoy the implied violence.
The movie takes a jungle (the Amazon, or rather a representative of the Amazon), mixes in 'The Rock' (Beck), adds a hapless sidekick in the form of Sean William Scott (Travis) and comes out with a pretty good party mix. To spice it up a bit, they then add Christopher Walken (Hatcher) as the essential bad guy.
R.J. Stewart has the dubious title of writer for this flick. Of course, had Stewart been interested in writing, more substance would have been added to Walken's character. Walken gave a great performance, but his presence in the flick is minimal. Nonetheless, it adds a some hilarious moments to The Rundown, which would have been much weaker without him.
PERFECT ACTION FLICK
'The Rock' is a great wrestler and that is what makes him perfect for the movie, which is essentially a wrestling match without the ring. The Rundown is the perfect action flick for eating popcorn. The plot is thin enough so that you do not have to pay much attention to it thereby not distracting you from the important element, the action.
This is action from the days of Rambo and Commando, but without all the blood and gore. Beck is one man who is about to take on the jungle, and everybody in his way gets knocked down, picked up and knocked down again. He gets a little bruised, there are a few scratches, but as all the bad guys are very bad shots, no bullets penetrate him.
Despite the lack of blood spewing from 'The Rock', his character is no Steven Seagal clone. Beck may not get shot, but he does get the tar and plaster beaten out of him more than once. The best of these moments is when he gets tag-teamed by 'the rebels'. They are much smaller than 'The Rock' but Flyin Brian has nothing on these muscular little men. They proved that size does matter, because smaller is faster.
Please note that The Rundown simply means 'chase' and that is essentially what the movie is. A long chase across a jungle with some kicks, punches and a few heads of cattle thrown in.
MOST THUNPS AND BUMBS
Although it may never get to stand in the same room as an Oscar, The Rundown should be the holder of two records. First, it gets an award for containing the longest drop in any movie. Travis and Beck go over a hill-side and they roll and roll and roll, and yes... roll. Just when you thought they had finally come to a stop, they started rolling again. Of course, they were not injured.
Second, The Rundown gets an award for the most thumps and bumps in any two movies. Many of these bumps came in the process of the roll for which the movie received the first award. However, there were many more throughout the film. 'The Rock' was flung, slapped, and kicked like no man has been flung, slapped and kicked before.
Sean William Scott hardly crawls his way above being an annoyance. His character merely gives 'The Rock' the chance to get rowdy but not much else. Rosario Dawson is not bad as the lead (or rather only) female. Her character is interesting and despite the lack of reality surrounding the rest of the flick, at least they have the dignity to not have her decked in make-up in the middle of the jungle.
The Rundown is not great, but if you ignore all that is wrong with it, it is fun.
