ChicRawIdol
A brilliant film that helped define a genre
Bea Swanson
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
Adeel Hail
Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.
docm-32304
This movie is the definition of entertainment! No BS, No emoting, no pandering. It starts fast and moves along at a great pace. Johnson has charisma as an actor and just keeps getting better. The action scenes are fantastic and it's hard to pick out a favorite one. Seann Scott is positively hilarious as the wisecracking little target of Dwayne's hunt. Their back and forth reminds me of Crash and Eddie from Ice Age 2 fearlessly taking on Diego. Rosario Dawson is as sexy as ever as the bartender and what can I say about Christopher Walken? He's his usual self delivering a quirky role yet again. If you love funny action/comedy, this is a keeper.
BA_Harrison
In a blink-and-miss-it cameo during the opening scene of Welcome to the Jungle (AKA The Rundown), Arnold Schwarzenegger hands over his action hero mantle to the only star capable of filling his shoes: Duane 'The Rock' Johnson. While this movie isn't anywhere near on a par with Arnie at his best, it certainly sets Johnson on the right path, delivering just enough OTT action infused with comedy to make it a mindlessly entertaining slice of slam-bang fun.The former WWF star plays retrieval expert Beck, who accepts one last job before becoming a restaurant owner: bring troublesome treasure hunter Travis (Seann William Scott) back from the Brazilian jungle to face his father in Los Angeles. Of course, doing so isn't as easy as it sounds, with unscrupulous gold-mine owner Hatcher (Christopher Walken) refusing to let Travis leave, believing that he knows the whereabouts of a priceless artifact.What follows is a whole load of knockabout silliness, Scott playing comic relief to Johnson's hero, as the guys evade Hatcher's army of hired killers, come face-to-ass with some angry baboons, locate the valuable statuette (in an Indiana Jones style scene complete with booby-trapped cave), and return to the gold-mine to rescue sexy rebel Mariana (Rosario Dawson), who has been trying to free her people from Hatcher's oppression.At 104 minutes, the film is perhaps 15 minutes or so too long, and the ballistic mayhem in the finale—where Beck finally breaks his 'no guns' rule—is of the 'A-Team' variety (i.e., lots of goons getting gunned down, but no blood), but as an introduction to Arnie's successor, Welcome to the Jungle does just fine.6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.
carbuff
Get the popcorn. It's quite watchable, except for Chistopher Walken who has been phoning it in for as long as I can remember now. Not great art for sure, but some cool machinery, some well-choreographed action sequences, some good laughs, and a workable plot. This film also plays perfectly to the talents of both Seann William Scott and "The Rock", which is what really keeps it right-side up. It's been said that casting is the most important decision in making a movie, and this film looks like good evidence.The ending seems quite problematical to me, but up to that point, it all flows very well. This film begs for a sequel to elaborate on how "The Rock's" character works his way out of the difficult situation that he has certainly left himself in. Maybe one was intended and that is why it finished in this seemingly incomplete fashion.
bdgill12
When debt collector/pseudo bounty hunter Beck (The Rock) want out of the business, his boss, Walker (William Duckling), sends him on one last mission. Beck heads to Brazil to track down Walker's son Travis (Sean William Scott) and bring him back to the States. It seems like an easy enough task until Beck finds himself in the middle of a cultural war between the locals and slumlord Hatcher (Christopher Walken).Apparently I didn't learn from my own Rock-related lesson with "Planet 51." Maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment. Either way, Netflix delivered me another craptastic action movie starring The Rock (who, again, I will not call Dwayne Johnson until he proves he can act) and I watched. I'd actually heard good things about "The Rundown" from people I trust so I'm willing to admit that my Rock prejudice may have gotten in the way here. But...THIS MOVIE IS TERRIBLE!!! Truthfully, The Rock isn't even the worst part. He's up there, sure, but he's the secondary issue. The real problem here is the movie's identity crisis as defined by director Peter Berg. Let me be clear: I'm a big fan of Berg. The three movies he did after "The Rundown" ("Friday Night Lights", "The Kingdom", and "Hancock") are all extremely strong, especially those first two. Maybe he just hadn't found his groove yet when he made this thing or maybe he just hitched his wagon to the wrong fake movie star. Regardless, this thing can't figure out whether it's a serious action movie or an over-the-top send up. I can enjoy either one. I'm not against absurdity when it's done right and even when it's done wrong I can usually just give it a pass on the grounds of no harm, no foul. But I can't get on board for a movie that jumps back and forth across the Ridiculous Line. One minute it seems like "The Rundown" wants to be legit, the next The Rock is flying through the air like freaking Peter Pan. I feel like this movie would have fit in fine in the 80s but "Die Hard" changed the game for action movies. If Berg had gone all-in and thrown together an 80s homage/throwback flick (like "The A-Team" for instance) then I think it's possible that I could get past The Rock sinking every scene like the on-screen dead weight he is. But as it is, the stupidity of the plot and the juvenile comedy (can any movie that features a monkey humping a human be considered funny?) just accentuate how bad The Rock is.The Soap Box Office: www.thesoapboxoffice.blogspot.com
