Movie Review: The Rundown

The Rundown

Billed as a "new kind" of action movie and staring The Rock in his first contemporary role, The Rundown had a lot to live up to. But between some stunningly choreographed fight scenes and The Rock's own surprising comedic abilities, the movie largely delivers on its promises.

In The Rundown, Beck (The Rock) is a retrieval expert. He'll get whatever it is you need gotten - for a price. But Beck is about to retire and use his savings to build the foundation for the next stage of his life. Then he's told he must retrieve just one more thing: the wayward son of a wealthy local thug. Between the offer of a quarter million dollars and the coercion to accept it, Beck heads for the Amazon where Travis (Seann William Scott) was last known to be living. With the help of a ragtag bush pilot named Declan (Ewan Bremner) and the beautiful bartender Mariana (Rosario Dawson), Beck quickly finds his prey. But what could have been an easy job is suddenly complicated by Hatcher (Christopher Walken), a local businessman who virtually enslaves the natives to work his gold mine, and the fact that Travis brags he's found something of value to both Hatcher and Mariana.

Although Beck is appalled by the conditions Hatcher imposes on the residents of the small company town called El Dorado, he considers the situation to be none of his business and prepares to return Travis home to his angry father. But both Hatcher and Mariana have other plans, and Beck finds himself in the middle of retrieving a man who will do virtually anything to avoid being forced to return home, and people who are already battling to win what it is they most value for themselves.

The Rundown is cleverly written. In fact, it's occasionally so clever that it knows it's clever. But it's still witty, and there are many times you'll find yourself grinning whether you want to or not. Andy Cheng, a fight choreographer who worked with The Rock on The Scorpion King, is responsible for several stunning fight scenes in The Rundown. Watch especially for a showdown between The Rock, who did all of his own stunts, and Ernei Reyes, Jr., a former martial arts champion turned actor. And the cinemetography is visually stunning. The jungle scenes, largely filmed in Hawaii, are spectacular. The Rock, who apparently surprised a lot of people with his acting ability in The Scorpion King (I always figured that, as a professional wrestler, he'd been acting for years), is even better in The Rundown. The other actors are also good, though Walken is a small disappointment. He's just fine, but we've come to expect better than "fine" from him. And Ewan Bremner might actually be quite funny, but his accent - intentionally or otherwise - is so thick that it's almost impossible to understand what he's saying.

As a whole, The Rundown is just plain fun. It's not going to educate you. It's not going to change the world. But you will have a good time for a couple of hours, and I guarantee you'll come out of the theatre smiling. In my opinion, that makes it well worth the price of admission.

FAMILY SUITABILITY: The Rundown is rated PG-13. There are a few uncomfortable scenes involving violence and, although there's no nudity, there are a couple of scenes involving monkeys (you'll see) that really aren't appropriate for the younger set. But for those 13 and up, The Rundown is almost as good as advertised, and certainly a whole lot better than much else that's out there right now (don't make me mention Underworld again!).