Review of The Rundown (2003) by Samuel J — 21 Jun 2009

"You threatening me? You threatening me with pee?".

Director: Pete Berg.

Starring: The Rock, Seann William Scott, Rosario Dawson, Christopher Walken.

Running time: 104 minutes.

Country: USA.

This is a really fun, action-packed and thrilling comedy. The action scenes were really good especially the fight scenes in the town near the end. That scene reminds me a lot of the Rambo franchise. The comedy mostly came from Travis. He is a real joker. The comedy is very crude in some scenes but sometimes they aren't saying the complete joke. The funniest bit is the pee break definitely. There are some action flicks that have been really fun but this one was really fun. The story was just a random made-up story that is fit for entertainment and tries to out do the Rambo films but to me it actually did. Welcome To The Jungle is the British name to the American name called The Rundown in which is it's real title name.

I have never really liked The Rock as an actor in films like I do as an actor in WWE/WWF. He has delivered some bad performances but to me his performance in this one was pretty good as Beck. Beck is a bounty hunter who resides in Los Angeles and works for mobster Billy Walker. When Beck ultimately thinks his jobs for Billy are over and that he can open his own restaurant, he is sent to Brazil to bring Billy's son Travis Walker back to L.A. The Rock portrays Beck like he is a real though guy with the attitude of an 80-year-old man. Seann William Scott always seems to amaze me as a person as well as an actor. I loved his performance as Travis because Travis is an arrogant, cocky young man who apparently has found a treasure within the jungle near the Amazon. Travis is a sort of character who always wants to be happy and to play loads of silly games and jokes. Christopher Walken was good as Hatcher because Walken is really good at playing that powerful, dominant and even fearful type of character. Hatcher is the ruler of El Dorado who uses its villagers as slaves to work in the mines to dig up gold. He is rather cold but he blames the Rebels (what they call themselves rather than Brazilians). Rosario Dawson portrays Mariana in a good performance. Quite strange really because an American actress is portraying a Brazilian woman. Mariana owns a bar in the town and she is the love interest of Travis and when Travis mentions the O Gato Do Diabo (The Devil's Cat) she becomes deeply interested in it.

Peter Berg has directed a really good 100 minutes of pure entertainment. He has done two other films that I have seen that aren't very good: The Kingdom and particularly Hancock. The script is very original that was just an entertaining script with jokes and with clumsy scenes.

This is my favourite film from The Rock so far but I do still think he's a crap actor (in films not in the WWE/WWF (previously). Seann William Scott always makes me laugh in every film he has been in that I have seen so far. His best is still American Pie but I really love his acting in Welcome To The Jungle/The Rundown and Road Trip as well. Overall, it is a really fun, exciting and adventurous piece of Rambo-like entertainment.