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The Rundown is an adventure film
sprinkled with humor and beautiful camera work.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
is Beck, a guy who provides muscle and does collection work for local loan shark, Billy
Walker (William Lucking). Beck wants out of the racket to open his own restaurant, but
Walker has one more collection that he needs performed. Walker wants Beck to get his son,
Travis, played by Seann William Scott, from a small town in the Amazon jungle. It seems
that Travis has crossed some of his father’s Chicago connections, and Walker needs to
deliver the boy to them for unstated consequences.
Beck is hesitant
to accept, but he takes the job after being guaranteed freedom from Walker and $250,000
to open his own restaurant. He also figures that it can’t be that difficult an
assignment.
But what kind of movie would that be?
When Beck arrives to pick up his package, he discovers that the town is
run by the corrupt Cornelius Hatcher, played by Christopher Walken. Playing it
politically, Beck meets with Hatcher to find out where Travis is. $10,000 later, Beck is
given “permission” to collect Travis, but a double-cross occurs when Hatcher discovers
that Travis knows the location of a priceless gold artifact.
After a
cool shoot-out in a bar, the audience finds out that Beck may be very anti-gun, but he
can still “lay the smack down” on Hatcher’s men. It also leads to Travis and Beck
traveling through the jungle together on their way back to the airstrip to catch a ride
home. Of course, the jungle is filled with all kinds of dangers—including Hatcher’s men,
rebels, and screaming monkeys.
The story moves in a very smooth flow,
but there are times when the dialogue is not as strong as it could be. Johnson and Scott
work well together, and they both show comedic flashes in the movie. Walken continues to
prove his performance strength, but at times, he was a victim of less-than-great
dialogue.
The cinematography in this film is awesome. The way scenes
are framed and the fight sequences are superb.
The DVD is worth
buying because in addition to a good film, there are a lot of extras. Access the bonus
materials to get commentaries, six featurettes, deleted scenes, and DVD-ROM features.
Grade: B (movie) A (DVD)
