by Chris Chavez
Daily Lobo
The action hero torch gets passed to The Rock in the surprisingly good comic action-adventure, "The Rundown."
Dwayne Johnson, better known as The Rock, gets his second starring role in "The Rundown" opening tomorrow. The Rock made his film debut in 2001's "The Mummy Returns" which lead to a more prominent role in the 2002 spin-off, "The Scorpion King."
"The Rundown" is The Rock's chance to prove to moviegoers that he can carry his own picture without the help of an already built-in franchise, and he succeeds.
"Have fun," are the only two words Arnold Schwarzenegger says to The Rock in the very metaphorically blunt opening scene of the film. The two cross paths when Schwarzenegger is leaving a club while The Rock is entering. Instead of Schwarzenegger staying around to lay the smack down himself, he leaves it up to The Rock. Within minutes of Schwarzenegger's departure, The Rock has taken out an entire offensive line of football players that were hanging out at the club.
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In the film, The Rock plays Beck who is a bookie's enforcer, or as Beck describes himself "a retrieval expert." Beck is sent to the jungles of Brazil to find his employer's missing son, Travis Walker (Seann William Scott of "American Pie" fame). Walker is a college dropout/archeologist who is the only person who knows the location of a sacred artifact that can bring peace or destroy the local villagers or their oppressors.
Unlike many other "buddy" movies, the interaction between The Rock and Scott's characters comes off rather convincing. The timing and comic exchanges between these two are unexpected, but well acted.
The jokes never approach toilet-humor, which is so frequent in many comedies these days. Although there is a recurring joke about a pack of wild "horny" monkeys that plagues our heroes throughout the film, the joke is done as tastefully as possible.
Expect great performances by supporting cast members Rosario Dawson (Men in Black II) and Christopher Walken. Dawson, not your typical damsel in distress, plays a rebel leader of "freedom-fighters" who oppose the horrible working conditions Hatcher (Walken) imposes on them. Hatcher is a gold mine operator in charge of thousands of laborers who dig up gold for anybody who owns a Rolex and for the gold in "rapper's teeth."
As expected, The Rock gets to flex his muscle in many well-choreographed fight scenes. All the fights are hand-to-hand, aside from the occasional bullwhip.
With an excellent cast, witty-dialogue, great fight scenes and minimal gore and vulgarity "The Rundown" is an excellent addition to the buddy-action-comedy genre and it should give The Rock the credentials he needs to be the new millennia's action hero.
