Lumsdal
Good , But It Is Overrated By Some
Ava-Grace Willis
Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
Tayyab Torres
Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
docm-32304
This movie is the definition of entertainment! No BS, No emoting, no pandering. It starts fast and moves along at a great pace. Johnson has charisma as an actor and just keeps getting better. The action scenes are fantastic and it's hard to pick out a favorite one. Seann Scott is positively hilarious as the wisecracking little target of Dwayne's hunt. Their back and forth reminds me of Crash and Eddie from Ice Age 2 fearlessly taking on Diego. Rosario Dawson is as sexy as ever as the bartender and what can I say about Christopher Walken? He's his usual self delivering a quirky role yet again. If you love funny action/comedy, this is a keeper.
NateWatchesCoolMovies
Ahh, Peter Berg's The Rundown. What a sun soaked galavant of action fun, a purely cinematic exercise in excitement and joyous fun, a rollicking genre exercise that's free from the burdens of intellectual expectation. No, it's nothing but playtime here, and one of the rare cases where a PG-13 rating actually doesn't hurt an action film. It's so lighthearted and affable that the extra bloody punch of an R rating probably would have been a jarring, unnecessary distraction and offset it's tone. For the record, you will almost never hear me advocate that in this genre, but I suppose every issue has its extreme exceptions. Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson plays Beck, a rough and tumble dude who coyly disguises the title of bounty hunter by calling himself a 'retrieval expert'. He's essentially a big teddy bear with the ability to rip out your stuffing and kick the ever loving crap out of anyone whose demise will earn him a pay cheque. He doesn't like using guns, and every cent he makes goes towards a dream of opening up his own restaurant. Pretty much the most adorable action hero you can imagine. He is sent by a Miami crime lord (William Lucking hamming it up royally) to retrieve his wayward son (Sean William Scott) who has run off to an unspecified tropical country. Beck jumps a plane and runs off to said country to give us one of the most pleasantly riotous action/comedy/adventure of the 00's. His pursuit of Scott leads him to endless picturesque jungles, horny baboons, invincible native Kung fu warriors and more. Scott turns out to be an elusive wise - ass who is nothing but calamity for both Beck and himself. The scenes where they try the dodgy local fruit are rewind worthy. He really shines here, bringing the same burn-down-the-house attitude he did as Stiffler. There's also a priceless artifact that everyone is trying to retrieve, including a tough local bartender (Rosario Dawson). There's also a villain, as there must be in any action film, a bugnuts local tyrant named Hatcher played by the one and only Christopher Walken. Hatcher is a wonderful Walken creation whose attempted menace is constantly undone by his penchent for silliness, a winning combination that super-charges every scene he gets. That lanky Scotsman Ewan Bremer is wicked funny as a deranged bush pilot who assists Beck in unintelligible endearance. Hearing him vivaciously recite Dylan Thomas's 'Dying Of The Light' right before a big old gunfight kicks off is absolute gold. Dwayne makes nice work of the action hero archetype, bringing an almost adolescent buoyancy to his vibe that he may even have not seen coming when he got into the craft. There's a surprise cameo from a genre titan early on in the film that is essentially a passing of the torch symbol, so eyes should be kept peeled. Director Berg knows how to wow an audience in many a genre, this being my favourite excursion of his thus far. It's loud, scenic, unapologetic and has fun six ways to freaking Sunday.
gst2000
I read somewhere that this was a spiritual remake of Midnight Run which is one of my favourite films...any fans of Midnight Run DO NOT FALL INTO THE SAME TRAP! Some bits are directly ripped from Midnight Run (from memory the start is incredibly similar), but the rest of the film is completely different, as is the humour. I found myself snigering a couple of times, usually due to the excellent Christopher Walken, but other than that the comedy fell short for me...and what was that awful Scottish accent of the pilot? Initially I thought he was Irish...then there were bagpipes and the penny dropped he was supposed to be Scottish.Maybe it's just me (being from the UK - something lost in translation?), but I found some of the 'slapstick' too OTT (rolling down the cliff being a good example) also things like 100's bullets being fired and all hitting the ground near feet (worst aiming in history). I found the comedy a bit too childish at times (toilet jokes)...but maybe the age rating had something to do with it? Anyway, overall the film was OK maybe I went in with my expectations too high (although I was aware this film wasn't as good) - not bad but anyone thinking of watching this needs to know Midnight Run is a substantially better film.
vamsi krishna
I rated this movie six, for the only reason that the movie trailer has really attracted me with some good action clips. Unfortunately, the movie has failed in keeping up-to the expectations, trailer has offered to the viewers. Based on just a trailer, we can't rate 10 for an entire movie! And so, I give it a 6, for the decent action sequences and the performances the artists have rendered. The audience will definitely enjoy the emotion that it carries till the end. But, it has failed in fulfilling the audience expectations. All over the movie, the audience will have a sort of disappointment like, it could have been much better.Obviously, The Rock does perform well, both on and off the screen in action sequences. But, the Director has failed in providing proper validity for many scenes, that the movie was built on. They were not explained properly in their importance related to the concept of the movie.All over, the movie promises you, an adventurous ride, astounding action sequences, promising performance by Rock in action sequences, a good humor and a good fun time. But, still, it could have been much better.
