The terms “high octane” and “action packed” could have undoubtedly been used to describe Peter Berg’s The Rundown– but they would only be scratching the surface of what I feel should have been the beginning of a successful film franchise. The cast of this movie alone ought to be enough to convince you that this would be 104 minutes of your life well spent: Dwayne Johnson, back when he was still calling himself “The Rock”; Seann William Scott, trading in his Stiffler persona for a weasely treasure hunter; Rosario Dawson, cranking up her sexy factor as a gun-toting Brazillian freedom fighter; and Christopher Walken as a shady businessman with Walken’s usually battery of eccentricities. The background players are impressive too, including former Ninja Turtle, Ernie Reyes Jr., and even a cameo by the Governator himself, in a kind of “handing off the torch” walk on.
Bounty hunter and aspiring restaurateur Beck (The Rock) is mired deeply in debt to a Miami gangster (played by former A-Team hunter William Lucking) and is offered to chance to clear that debt by heading to Brazil to track down said gangster’s son, Travis (Seann William Scott) and bring him home. When Beck gets to Brazil, he finds that Travis is hunting down a precious Brazilian artefact and everyone wants a piece of it, including freedom fighter Mariana (Dawson) and local oppressor Hatcher (Walken). Said conflict leads to bullwhip fights, 3 on 1 jungle brawls, face-humping monkeys, mind bending psychotropic fruit, and even a town-levelling stampede. It may not be particularly insightful or even very original, but it’s fun, funny and has plenty of things blowing up.
I agree with your view on the movie! I remember hearing all of the critics say how bad this film was. But when I saw it in theaters, I thought it was a great, action-packed ride. Don’t forget to mention Christopher Walken! He was great in this film, as he always is. Thanks for bringing this movie up, I think I want to buy it now. I need to see this a second time around!
Thanks!
Josh Lipovetsky,
Walken is arguably one of the best things about this movie. It was strange, he was pretty over the top in a funny kind of way, but at other times he was spooky “in a vendetta kind of mood” way.
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