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Directed by: Peter Berg Starring: The Rock, Seann William Scott, Christopher Walken, Rosario Dawson Beck (The Rock) is a retrieval expert for a slimy mob boss, but wants out of the business for good. The boss sends him on one last mission--to the Amazon, to retrieve his pain-in-the-rear end son Travis (Seann William Scott). Beck arrives in the rainforest to discover a village virtually enslaved by a greedy gold tycoon (Christopher Walken). In the process of bringing back Travis, Beck finds himself caught up in a web of rebellion, deceit and face-raping monkeys. The Rundown is a cliche-a-minute thrill ride that will have you clutching your testicles in pure exhilaration, I would shout if I were working for Rolling Stone. Yes, we've seen this all before. Stoic, oily muscleman saves the girl\statue\townsfolk from the evil clutches of snarky rear end in a top hat bad guy. But this movie is a great deal better than your standard sh'mup. For one thing, The Rock never turns the moment before shooting someone into a tryout for Jay Leno's writing staff. Don't get me wrong, there's a few choice moments of hilarity on his part, but they each play off of his character's serious demeanor. The best exchange in the entire movie comes when a tired and desperate Travis, after walking the jungle for hours, tries to get Beck to help him take a piss. Scott never settles into a role as straight comedy relief either, and the two are left relying on their banter to score laughs, which for the most part they succeed in. And the whole production just has tremendous pacing. Talky scenes and action sequences trade off evenly enough to make sure the audience doesn't suffer from burnout. Given the locale, the action seems novel too. So many of these mindless action flicks take place in the city and that poo poo gets boring. For whatever reason, acrobatic Portuguese rebels are much more fun to watch than gun-toting lowlifes. And Rosario Dawson is one sexy lady. It's a new take on an old favourite. The Rundown is pretty loving good. Here's hoping The Rock's run as a leading man lasts longer than Hulk Hogan's. RATING: 4 PROS: Fun, well-paced action movie CONS: Not terribly original ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0327850/
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May 6, 2004 15:04
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| # ? Apr 18, 2024 02:21 |
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It's a brainless movie with virtually no story, but plenty of one-liners, The Rock being an overall badass, and Sean William Scott being punched repeatedly in the face. The movie, however, really hurts in some places. Christopher Walken's role was hardly a notable performance, and Sean William Scott is about as annoying as ever. In fact, aside from the parts where he's getting smacked around by The Rock, he really ruins almost every scene he's in. The Rock is great as an actor, and you can really see that he has potential to star in much, much better roles than these. 2.5, I would think. It's a fine brainless action flick, but SWS makes me exercise the fast-forward button and I expected a lot more from Walken's role.
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May 6, 2004 16:17
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if you like the rock, you'll love this flick. filled with all sorts of current film cliches--super rapid cutting, zooms w/ sound effects, etc. this is a movie definitely tailored to the trl audience. almost everything about the movie screams at an attempt to snatch ten bucks out of the wallets of every ADD-addled, coca-cola addicted, suburban teen and IMO succeeds overwhelmingly in satisfying almost all the desires and needs such a viewer would have on a friday night at the local superplex. that said, it's a great popcorn flick, the rock does indeed kick rear end (gently caress off vin diesel), and 5 foot tall portugese capoeira freedom fighters are the new philip seymour hoffman (onscreen for a total of 8 minutes, but steal the loving movie). 3.5/5
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May 6, 2004 17:51
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Got a chance to watch this on my school's movie channel, and I was pleasantly surprised. Fairly solid performances although it wasn't as much of a comedy as a combination of Walken, Stiffler and the Rock would signal to you. phlurd was right when he aid "If you like the Rock, you will like this movie." 3.5/5
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May 6, 2004 18:48
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Suprisingly good. I don't love or hate the Rock -- I would never watch wrestling and felt neutral to his performance in the Mummy movies. The biggest drawback here, as already mentioned, is that it's nothing new. But you know what, it's been way too long without a single decent, straight up action flick that isn't 2 hours long and doesn't employ some lovely gimmick. The Rundown reminds me of 90's action movies that didn't take themselves seriously but still managed to be exciting. The best part about the Rundown is the action itself, it's such a change of pace from most action we see these days. You can actually follow the fight and comprehend what the specific people are doing in order to win the fight. Most movies nowadays are like this: Guy 1 runs at Guy 2, camera zooms in, screen blurs/flashes for a second, Guy 2 goes flying and lands. The action in The Rundown is so great that you're able to follow the specifics of every fight, without the use of gimmicky bullet-time, excessive slow-motion, or some other CGI crap. It's just well choreographed, well-filmed, and well acted by the Rock (whose wrestling background no doubt helped). The story isn't worth mentioning, but it's good enough. The Rock's character and his sidekick have enough to deal with that it's never boring. They do the buddy-action thing well, and Sean Silverman or whatever his name was didn't annoy me as much as I figured he would. The one-liners are thankfully groan-free, and are pretty witty. Christopher Walken completely owns his scene and it only helps make this a well-above-average action movie. A solid 4.0
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Jun 21, 2004 22:39
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eh, I can't believe they made this crap...to me, boring the whole way through. why do they keep paying the rock incredible salaries to do these crappy movies, every single flick he stars in is a total flop, box office and otherwise. 2/5
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Jun 22, 2004 04:25
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I was going in to this movie expecting more of a comedy, especially with Sean William Scott in there. But i was surprised to find that the action was the biggest thing going for this movie. The action scenes are just hot in this movie and it has a bit of everything thrown in, from guns to fists to high flying capuiera fighting brazilians. Though they should have had a lot more comedy in this movie, especially with the cast they were able to put together for this film. 4/5
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Jun 22, 2004 06:18
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I really liked this movie, and I went in almost despising The Rock. It proved wrong most of my expectations, in that it was actually interesting all the way through, and does indeed prove that the Rock actually has talent. The action sequences were great, and I liked the Alias-style "no guns" theme (for the main character at least). I felt the Rock's character was fleshed out well in that it took a lot of conflict for him to pick up the shotguns to save Stifler, though it was sort of silly how adept with them he was despite his aversion to them. The comedy relief of Stifler and Rock playing off each other was nice, too. "I'm not moving until I pee, so if you want to keep moving you'll have to carry me, and I'll pee on your head." "Are you threatening me... with pee?  ""It'll swim up my what?  " "Not this boy's pintoo, nuh uh, not today."All in all, enjoyable, though not particularly inventive, but a solid 4.5/5 "...that's a lot of cows." edit: I also really liked Arnold's cameo in the intro scene Jadaris fucked around with this message at 11:17 on Jul 26, 2004 |
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Jul 26, 2004 11:11
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I liked this film a lot; "surprisingly good" is the phrase of the day. Great action, funny characters, etc. A very fun movie.
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Jul 27, 2004 04:20
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An alright film, but I'd agree that the Rock's acting was surprising good. He really did but his time and effort into putting on a great performance. 4/5
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Jul 28, 2004 00:25
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These days there needs to be somebody out there doing stupid action right. This movie convinced me that the Rock is that man. Best enjoyed with alchohol. 4/5
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Jul 28, 2004 04:05
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