The Rundown (2003)

Movie Info

When it comes to size, the Rock gets rocked!

Beck (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) is the strong arm of a powerful man named Walker (William Lucking), but Beck wants out.  Ordered to travel to South America to bring back Walker’s directionless son Travis (Seann William Scott), Beck hopes the last assignment can provide him with the money he needs to launch his restaurant.  Beck’s arrives in South America to find problems.  Travis’ potentially discovered the lost treasure of the Gato and industrialist Cornelius Bernard Hatcher (Christopher Walken) wants it.  Now, Beck finds himself teamed with Travis in a battle to survive the jungle, Cornelius, and the rebel forces trying to overthrow Cornelius…all to get back home.

Directed by Peter Berg, The Rundown is an action adventure.  The movie was well received by critics, but didn’t fare well at the box office.

Don’t you have to go eat Jennifer Lawrence in the Hunger Games?

The Rock is one of those actors who just can’t catch a break.  He has charm and he has a lot of the traits held by Arnold Schwarzenegger, but he can’t seem to get a project that matches up with his ability.  The Rundown matches the Rock’s persona, but just doesn’t seem able to get off the ground.

The movie goes for comedy mixed with action.  The humor is sometimes written over the top and predictable, but it is the style of humor you’d expect from the type of movie.  The plot is fair with the classic “treasure hunt” occurring, but the mixing in of the rebels and Walken’s character Hatcher adds some variety to the plot.

The Rock brings his charm to the movie, and I think he has potential to be a good entertaining star.  I don’t love Seann William Scott, but he works as a good foil for the Rock here.  Christopher Walken is always weird and his weirdness is what this script needed.  I wish that the writer had done a bit more with Rosario Dawson’s character.  Arnold Schwarzenegger does appear as a bar patron in small cameo.

Eat your heart out, Indiana Jones!

The action scenes are decently choreographed.  I particularly like the whip fights  (since that is a bit different than the standard gun battle), but the movie does feel a bit like a low rent Raiders of the Lost Ark (that was until Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was released which made this look great).

I can’t say I really understand the failure of The Rundown which honestly isn’t the worst action picture you’ll see.  The action is a lot like something like Romancing the Stone which mixes humor and adventure in an exotic location, and it feels like that type of movie has been missing from the theater recently.  There has been talk of The Rundown 2, and I can’t say that I wouldn’t be interested.