'The Rundown' is Rock solid fun

By Forrest Hartman
The Reno Gazette Journal

THE RUNDOWN (Rated PG-13) Three Stars (Good) The Rock (Dwayne Johnson), plays a larger-than-life bounty hunter out to nab a wisecracking adventurer in this witty and engaging action flick. Also starring Seann William Scott, Rosario Dawson and Christopher Walken. Directed by Peter Berg. Universal Pictures, 90 minutes.

With "The Scorpion King" and "The Mummy Returns" behind him, Johnson enters this weekend less a pro-wrestling oddity than an actor with something to prove, and it's heartening to watch him rise to the occasion.

Johnson is a solid performer with the physicality of an action star and the nonchalant charm it takes to win audiences. "The Rundown" should establish him as a credible leading man ready to pick up where aging heroes like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger left off.

Johnson plays Beck, a larger-than-life bounty hunter out to nab a wisecracking adventurer named Travis (Seann William Scott). The case takes Beck to the jungles of Brazil where Travis is on the verge of uncovering an ancient treasure. This makes Travis such a popular guy that rebel soldiers, an unscrupulous American tyrant named Hatcher (Christopher Walken) and even a group of wild monkeys are intent on ruining Beck's snatch-and-run job.

Although Johnson is clearly the film's selling point, Scott proves a wonderful foil, setting up the gags with the same expert timing that made him a hit in the "American Pie" series. Walken, also, is characteristically entertaining, but one gets the feeling he could have slept his way through this role — playing a sociopath has to be second nature for this guy by now.

Rounding out the cast is Rosario Dawson as an attractive young Brazilian with a stake in Travis' treasure hunt and Ewen Bremner, a nutty Scottish pilot with an astoundingly annoying accent.

"The Rundown" is one of those pictures that aims only to entertain its audience, and unburdened by the deeper issues that sink headier projects, it hits the mark. Director Peter Berg ("Very Bad Things") has apparently come into his own, building a movie that has enough thrills to please testosterone junkies, enough laughs to please their dates, and enough of a plot to keep guys like me from walking out in disgust. This isn't as easy to achieve as you might think, a point proved by the ever-growing action-comedy graveyard.

What separates this movie from the lemmings is the cast, Andy Cheng's masterful fight choreography, and Berg's ability to develop fascinating characters while pushing the story forward at breakneck speeds. It's the cinematic equivalent of a pulp novel. Nobody will ever mistake it for great literature, but it's darn near impossible to tear yourself away.

Rated PG-13 for adventure violence and some crude dialogue.