The
Rundown
2003
Directed by: Peter Berg
Written by: R.J. Stewart & James Vanderbilt
Main Cast:
The Rock - Beck
Seann William Scott - Travis
Rosario Dawson - Mariana
Christopher Walken - Hatcher
Ewen Bremner - Declan
Jon Gries - Harvey
William Lucking - Walker
Ernie Reyes Jr. - Manito
Stuart F. Wilson - Swenson
Stuart Wilson - Swenson
Dennis Keiffer - Naylor
Garrett Warren - Henshaw
Toby Holguin - Head Indian Tracker
Paul Power - Martin
Stephen Bishop - Knappmiller
Rated PG-13
To sum up: The Rock plays a Bounty Hunter who wants to be a chef
with his own restaurant in a film that's a combination of 3 parts
"Romancing the Stone", one part "Midnight Run", with just
a splash of "Indiana Jones".
The best thing about this film is The Rock, the
famous pro wrestler that's trying to craft a career in the movies. Now I'm not
saying that he gives a stunning, virtuoso performance or anything like that.
What I will say is that he comes up with a nice, likeable hero for this
film. He plays a character named Beck, a bounty hunter who is sick of
his job, and just wants to cash out from his boss and pursue his dream of
owning his own restaurant. He's great at busting heads and you know when he
dives into the action, he'll be very good at it.
But this film gives our hero some interesting twists
so he doesn't come across as a soulless killer. One is that he is a cook.
While waiting to get access to a party where one of his bounties is hanging
out, Beck is sitting in his car and listening to cooking tips on the radio.
Not many action stars that would rather cook. A second twist is that
most of his action centers around his creatively disarming his opponents and
instead of using said guns he casts them aside. Turns out he doesn't like
guns. So what we have here is a kinder, gentler action hero. One that's a bit
more kid friendly than say Arnold Schwarzenegger, who the Rock has been compared to. Finally,
he would rather avoid fights; instead giving potential opponents
options A or B. Naturally, no one picks A, the easier of the two, and very
quickly learn to regret it.
In short, the only way Beck is going to get out of
his contract is to go into the South American jungles and get his boss's son,
Travis (Seann William Scott). Travis, as played by Scott, is a smart mouth,
slick talking, screw-up of a guy. You can be certain that there will be a lot
of whiny verbal sparring when he and Beck meet. Though on the run for sleeping
with the wrong girl and angering the wrong people, which is why daddy wants
him, he claims that he is really searching for a lost, priceless
artifact.
The other two leads are comprised of Hatcher (Christopher Walken)
and Mariana (Rosario Dawson). Hatcher is the local boss who owns the town,
where everybody there exists to slave away for gold in his mines. When he
hears that Travis may know where this artifact is, he steps in to get it for
himself. Walken plays Hatcher with the usual eccentric blustering that he has
been doing lately. In short he plays Walken. With his tendencies towards
meaningless speeches and occasional asides, it will be up to the audience
whether this is annoying or not.
Mariana is the local bartender who is more than
she appears. It's a pretty bland role and though Dawson performs adequately at
it, there's not much there to make it memorable. She's the one with the tools
to help Travis find his little treasure and, of course, she wants a cut.
The Rundown is not a bad movie. It's just not
particularly good. Though it has some action to occupy the eyes, it isn't that
thrilling and much of it gravitates towards the ridiculous when people survive
crashes and falls that should kill, or at the very least cripple them.
It's an action film that is clearly reminiscent of
"Romancing the Stone" in it's tone. For the most part, it's pretty
lighthearted and has a few laughs as Beck and Travis bicker and argue and the
audience is supposed to enjoy this buddy-picture-like banter. I heard some
laughs from the crowd that I saw it with but it was nothing that special.
Run this one down on video.
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