 The Rundown (2003) About a minute into the film, he enters a club where he is to collect some owed money on behalf of his loan shark employer, and he passes Arnold Schwartzenegger, who is on-screen just long enough to tell The Rock "Have fun." It's like the torch is being passed. A bold idea, but the rest of the film pays it off, beating xXx at its own game, by far, and potentially launching a pretty cool little franchise. Rocky plays Beck, a "retrieval specialist" with unbeatable moves and unflinching confidence in his ability to kick all asses. He's assigned to find his employer's rogue son (Seann William Scott), a self-proclaimed amateur archaeologist who is looking for a priceless and rare artifact deep in the Amazon. So there's plenty of Raiders of the Lost Ark, with some Apocalyse Now thrown in courtesy Christopher Walken's sociopathic jungle king character, and a whole lotta Midnight Run going on betwen The Rock and enigmatic jackass Scott. Surprisingly, the weakness is Roasario Dawson, who's usually terrific, but here is way out of her lague attempting a Portuguese accent that sounds more like John Leguizamo than Gal Costa. Lots of double-crossin', ass-kickin', kung-fu-shittin', shit-blowin'-uppin', wisecrackin' action. I fully expected to roll my eyes all the way through this movie, but ended up having a really good time. Ah fuck it, I have a really good time every time the Rock has no shirt on.
Review by Lula Babcock |