The Rock is Chris Vaughn, an Ex Navy SEALS commando type who has returned to his home town in Rural Washington. Upon returning, he sees that the Mill in which his father worked has closed down, drugs are rampant, the cops are a bit too laid back than usual, and a casino dominates the land. His not-so-much-of-a-friend from highschool, Jay Hamilton owns the casino and basically owns the town. Finally fed up when he is pushed too far, he decides to become the new town sheriff.
The Rock is not quite there yet, but is shaping into the next action star of our time. Now, when you see Johnny Knoxville's name being advertised in an actual movie and not a "Jackass" type fare, you wonder to yourself if he's going to sink the film. In "Walking Tall", he surprises by turning in a pretty good performance. It's just the script that's the problem here Hollywood tried before to make a movie about one man basically owning a town because he's so rich and powerful. That movie was called "Road House". if you saw that movie, you'd know that I wouldn't need to say much more. but if you haven't, "Road House" was crammed full of ridiculous plot deices, unrealistic violence, and just a lot of bad dialog that is still frowned upon today.
I have got to say that "Walking Tall" is much better than "Road House" by a landslide. The script's dialog scenes were way too brief, but still a bit interesting. The action scenes are pretty good. Nothing truly believable, but still good. The bad segments concern The Rock's courtroom scene and his relationship with the stripper.
The movie would have been even better if it had slowed down and taken some care in some of it's scenes. Everything was shot from uninventive, "let's get this over with" angles, and the editing was just crap. Take the the football scene near the beginning, for example. it's opportunity for the audience to have some fun with the characters, but it turns into a quick sequence of very short cuts that makes it not very fun. When the Rock gets taken down at the end of the game, it just looks like they were covering up a mistake.
in the end, it comes back to the script and the film crew. I felt more care and inventiveness was needed for all the scenes.
**/****
The Rock is not quite there yet, but is shaping into the next action star of our time. Now, when you see Johnny Knoxville's name being advertised in an actual movie and not a "Jackass" type fare, you wonder to yourself if he's going to sink the film. In "Walking Tall", he surprises by turning in a pretty good performance. It's just the script that's the problem here Hollywood tried before to make a movie about one man basically owning a town because he's so rich and powerful. That movie was called "Road House". if you saw that movie, you'd know that I wouldn't need to say much more. but if you haven't, "Road House" was crammed full of ridiculous plot deices, unrealistic violence, and just a lot of bad dialog that is still frowned upon today.
I have got to say that "Walking Tall" is much better than "Road House" by a landslide. The script's dialog scenes were way too brief, but still a bit interesting. The action scenes are pretty good. Nothing truly believable, but still good. The bad segments concern The Rock's courtroom scene and his relationship with the stripper.
The movie would have been even better if it had slowed down and taken some care in some of it's scenes. Everything was shot from uninventive, "let's get this over with" angles, and the editing was just crap. Take the the football scene near the beginning, for example. it's opportunity for the audience to have some fun with the characters, but it turns into a quick sequence of very short cuts that makes it not very fun. When the Rock gets taken down at the end of the game, it just looks like they were covering up a mistake.
in the end, it comes back to the script and the film crew. I felt more care and inventiveness was needed for all the scenes.
**/****