Walking Tall: The Rock With A Piece of Lumber

It seems that nowadays instead of musicians trying their hands at acting professional wrestlers are getting in the mix on a more frequent basis. Which makes sense when you think about it considering that pro-wrestling is a bunch of over acting. Since his debut Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has done an excellent job of transferring into a different medium and has demonstrated charisma that performers who have been in the industry for decades longer than him lack. But before he became to go to guy for the new Disney films the man most famous for the People's Elbow started with a series of action films including this remake of an old seventies action movie.

In it our hero plays Chris Vaughn an accomplished soldier that has come to his small town home to find it's not like it used to be. All the small businesses are closed and the mill that was the town's primary industry has been shut down and replaced by a Casino run by his old rival Jay Hamilton. Though life is tough Chris appears to be settling in when the Casino's unsightly after hours activities hit him too close to home and send him on a rampage. Now with a severe case of righteousness and Johnny Knoxville at his side Vaughn aims to take back his town and make it the way it was.

I'm not even going to be bother critiquing this movie because you already know what it's weaknesses are going to be. Weak script, weak characters, and a somewhat unsettling run time that almost runs under eighty minutes. But this movie was never trying to be an Oscar winner. The posters pretty much said it all they just feature the Rock with a giant piece of lumber in his hand aaaaaaand nothing else. So bearing in mind we're here to see primarily one thing I'll analyze that.

Overall the movie is broken into two kinds of action sequences. The first is the less exciting of the two so we'll cover it first. In this movie that would be the gun play. Essentially save time and presumably money the gun play takes place in two locations simultaneously with the Rock in a jail setting and Johnny Knoxville and company in a house. Both men are aiming to take down hit squads. The Rock's end while enjoyable kind of felt unoriginal to me because I had seen it done to a much more epic extent in L.A. Confidential so naturally I went A Ha! after awhile. Knoxville's end I liked just a little bit more because it felt more like a real gunfight. Chaotic lots of bad shots and a couple of lucky breaks. Not to mention once the Rock dodges the first sequence of machine gun fire you're pretty sure he's gonna be ok.

The bread and butter of this movie though is the hand to hand combat. Two of the fights take place in the Casino while another takes place in the woods. The first casino fight impressed me because it actually showed that perhaps Vaughn had military training and hence could handle so many opponents aside from the fact that he's a brick house with legs. There's some good grappling and it feels in your face. The second one is less impressive simply because as cool as it sounds a 2x4 is an awkward weapon. However considering when this beat down occurs it is pretty much nothing but satisfying to watch. The final fight was a bit of let down because it seemed like two guys who didn't know how to fight when we've seen that Vaughn at the very least knows how to fight. Towards the end of it I felt like I was watching a seventies action movie when the bad guy and good guy just hit each other until somebody falls.

One thing that is very evident is that the filmmakers pride themselves on the fights feeling genuine and not overly choreographed which is something I can appreciate. This movie also avoids a cardinal action movie sin which is making the fighting incomprehensible which is something more Hollywood directors are doing at an alarming rate. This movie also does a reasonably good job of avoiding the ultra bad ass persona since our hero does get banged up pretty bad.

Now here's my only complaint. I know that it's a small town but don't you think state or federal government could get involved in a problem as big as the one around the town. That's never really explained. The local police are in the bad guy's pocket sure but that's a given. All you have to say is that he has connections to higher authorities just to address it. That three seconds of dialogue gives you so much more credibility and it is really a demonstration of how little most of this movie was thought out.

But what did you expect? This movie is most certainly a guilty pleasure on my part and it scares me to admit that I'll probably watch anything The Rock or Dwayne Johnson does from here on out that isn't an overly kiddie movie. Mostly this movie can be appreciated as a stepping stone for an up and coming action star and for a brainless exercise on a lazy Saturday. Enjoy kids.