New Classic Review - The Rundown

Today's classic review is of one of my favorite action movies of the last ten years,The Rundown. From the opening nightclub scene (which features a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo by Arnold Schwarzenegger), director Peter Berg crams more action and humor into the film than seems physically possible.

The film begin with "retrieval expert" Beck (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) on a mission from his employer Billy Walker (William Lucking) to collect on a debt from a professional quarterback who "gambles like Pete Rose." The quarterback tries to rebuff Beck with a measly $1,000, even though the debt is fifty times that. Beck reluctantly informs Knappmiller, the quarterback, that he needs his championship ring as collateral on the loan. Knappmiller responds by spilling two drinks in Beck's face.

In the first of many understated bad ass moments in the film, Beck calls his employer and informs him that he doesn't want to get the ring from Knappmiller. See, Knappmiller has five of his teammates with him, whose vital stats we are give by very clever Sports Center style graphics. The reason Beck gives for not going through with the job is "I don't want to hurt these guys." Eventually, Walker persuades him to get the job done, and he does, demolishing all six football players in the process (two of whom were almost seven feet tall).

Tired of Walker short changing him, Beck demands to be released from some un-spoken debt he's been working off. Walker agrees, as long as Beck travels to Brazil to bring back his son, Travis (Seann William Scott), whom Billy has had to bail out of some trouble. Along the way, Beck joins forces with sassy local bartender Mariana (the exotic Rosario Dawson), and finds himself on the wrong side of a disagreement with Cornelius Hatcher (Christopher Walken. Yes, really.), the owner of the local mining town where Travis has been searching for a priceless artifact. Hatcher and his henchmen are after the artifact, which Mariana wants to help free her people from Hatcher's iron grip.

Beck makes a deal with Mariana to get her the artifact, known as "El Gato," in exchange for her to act as his guide to get back to the airport where he has a plane waiting to deliver him and Travis back to Los Angeles. Things don't go according to plan, with Travis and Beck getting captured by rebels, and Mariana eventually getting kidnapped by Hatcher. Beck has a crisis of conscience, and decides to save Mariana, leading way to the spectacular final scene of the film.

Although only Berg's sophomore effort (after 1998's awful dark comedy Very Bad Things), The Rundown is a well-shot, decently paced action comedy. There are a few stylistic edits that seem a bit much, these are infrequent enough to not hinder the movie as a whole. This could have been because Berg seemed to be struggling to find a balance between the TV directing he had been doing, and the extremely stylized signature method he employs in his followups Friday Night Lights and The Kingdom.

As far as the film's star goes, Johnson impresses with not only his physicality (although everyone expected him to be strong, he also proves himself to be very quick and agile), but his comedic timing, which is something even veteran actors of years struggle with from time to time. Even though some of the dialogue is stilted and some of the actors are weak at times (Scott especially seems to have problems with some of the more serious scenes), Johnson's charisma and instant likability more than make up for it.
Grade: 8
(All movies are graded on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being cinematic perfection, and 1 being worthy of the phrase "I've seen better film on my shower curtain.")