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Walking
Tall Movie Review: It's not a bad story at all, but the filmmakers strip it of any meaning or purpose. The film is merely a series of set-piece montages: reunion football match, pole dancing, casino brawl, torture (human), courtroom, torture (vehicular), soft-focus sex, mega gunplay, showdown in abandoned mill. That's the entire movie ... and half of these scenes are unnecessary! The Rock struts through it all manfully, removing his shirt to flex his massive muscles before getting down to business. He and the cast are extremely watchable, but each character is wafer thin. The filmmakers are so finely focussed on scenes of one man cleaning up small town corruption that they never bother to dig under the surface. And that surface is pretty vile, with nasty grisliness that makes it impossible for us to cheer for the good guys. Blame Bray, whose colourful and kinetic style tries to mask his incoherent direction and strongly misogynistic streak. Besides Chris' ex-hooker girlfriend (Scott), the cast list includes one Exotic Beauty, a Dollar Bill Girl, a Girl on Platform, two Casino Trashy Women and Wet T-Shirt Girls, and three Lap Dancers. This is obviously where his interest lies, rather than telling a meaningful story. Rich Cline Chris Vaughn (The Rock) returns home after eight years in the army to find that his hometown has wasted away to a dilapidated, crime-ridden shell of its former self. The Mill, which was once main employer in the town, has long since closed and been replaced by a Casino. Owned by Jay Hamilton (McDonough), Chris’s old High School rival, the casino has given him power and influence in the town with everything that is happenings doing so because he wants it to. Seeing this, Chris decides to step up and bring down Hamilton.
The Rock tries again to conquer Hollywood like his does wrestling ring but he isn’t getting the right projects to do so. His career is mimicking Arnold Schwarzenegger’s early forays into the movie business. After both been a superstar in there sports (Wrestling in The Rock’s case and Body Building in Arnie’s case) they went on to star in a high concept action role which brought them instant movie fame (The Rock = The Mummy Returns, Arnie = The Terminator). They then went on to star in some movies that, while entertaining, never really set their genre alight but did increase their profile. Walking Tall is one of those movies for The Rock. Based on the true story of Sheriff Buford Pusser (The story has hit the silver screen before in the 70s), the filmmakers have taken the main story and tailored it towards The Rock’s unique talents. Here he gets the chance to take on numerous opponents in his own inimitable style, dispatching them with ease but in Walking Tall we do get to see our hero take one hell of a beating. Of course this is the catalyst for his character’s fight back against the corruption in the town as this isn’t the most original of premises but the sheer screen presence of the WWE superstar makes it all the more watchable. Another personality moving away from his TV roots to become a thespian is Johnny Knoxville. The Jackass himself is slowly carving a name for himself in the acting fraternity. As Chris Vaughn’s best friend Ray he portrays him as a very likeable character that has struggle to step out of his illustrious friend’s shadow. Knoxville improves with every performance and he actually might be on his way to becoming a big screen star. There support is also up to the job. Neal McDonough plays a good villain by portraying him as a real power hungry grease ball. Ashley Scott is nothing more than eye candy but good eye candy all the same. Kristen Wilson and Khleo Thomas are fine as Chris’s sister and nephew. Walking Tall is another step on the Hollywood ladder for The Rock. He has the screen presence and charisma to make it far in the business. While the inevitable comparisons between him and other movie muscle men will continue, he does have on major asset in his favour over all that have gone before him. He can actually act. Star Rating = * * * Back in 1973, the true story of a Southern sheriff named Buford Pusser, played by Joe Don Baker, who battled the odds with his pickup truck and a hunk of wood made audiences stand up and cheer. The story was brutal, risky but also inspirational.
It was a great story unto itself so why did it take 4 screenwriters, 7 producers and 2 editors to cobble together a barely 80 minute remake?
The 2004 version has the hunk of wood, the corruption in the town and the hero becoming sheriff but that’s about all. In this re-imagining of the true story (which does beg the question to how can one re-imagine a true story), Pusser has been transformed into Chris Vaughn (played by The Rock), an elusive Special Forces officer who has just finished his tour of duty and has come home to reconnect with his roots.
Upon his arrival, Chris reunites with his parents and his sister as well as old friend Ray Templeton (Johnny Knoxville). He also meets up with high school rival, Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough) who seems to have inserted a new backbone into Vaughn’s hometown after the closure of the lumber mill.
The more Vaughn pokes around the more he learns about the town’s new disease, Hamilton’s giant casino. The casino’s influence oozes across throughout the town and Chris learns his ex-love Deni (Ashley Scott) has become a stripper, his nephew overdosed on Crystal Meth and the corruption even goes to the highest level.
After a rather brutal struggle against Hamilton, Vaughn has nothing left but to walk tall and do all he can to take back the hometown of his birth. Even if that means becoming the town sheriff himself.
The biggest problem with “Walking Tall” is how it relates to the subject matter to which it is supposed to be based. Why even connect the film to the Pusser story when there is hardly anything left of it. At least that is what the final 80 minute project feels like. Maybe there was a pull to have the film be more like Pusser, maybe there was more story than what we have in front of us. Who knows!
You have a high adrenaline action sequence, some partial dialogue, another action sequence, sexy scene and another action sequence and so on. If you actually pulled out the action sequences the film wouldn’t even fill a half hour. The action scenes themselves are intense and great fun but they lacked any real heart.
I really enjoy The Rock and his push into the action genre. His last film, “The Rundown” I thoroughly enjoyed. He is good here as well just there isn’t enough time to really get to know him as Vaughn. The same goes for his sidekick Johnny Knoxville from what I saw I liked but it was over before I could relate to him. I also liked Neal McDonough but his villain becomes almost as cartoonish as Michael Caine in “On Deadly Ground”.
The film really left me wanting a lot more. There also needed to be a lot more story. They made three Walking Tall movies and a TV series in the 1970s so there had to be more to this story. It could have been so much better.
The
Rock needs to decide if he is going to be a Steven Seagal
or an Arnold Schwarzenegger. What eventually separated Arnie
from Seagal were the high-caliber directors he would eventually
team up with in classic blockbuster projects like “Terminator”,
“Predator” and “Total Recall”. The
Rock needs a better stable of directors and writers behind
the camera to make his next film really score huge. He really
needs to arrive instead of just showing us that he could
be the next great action hero. A remake of the 1973 controversial film, Walking Tall is a wobbly another action picture that exploits The Rock’s personality on his way too becoming Hollywood’s next action hero. This remake will probably not stir up as much controversy as the original film, but this is The Rock’s first “Dirty Harry” type of role. Taking place in a small county in Washington, Chris Vaughn (The Rock) is a retired member of the military’s Special Forces that has finally returned home. His dreams of going to work at the local mill are shattered, after learning that the mill has closed due to the booming economy of the small town’s new casino. Running the casino along with most of the city’s other sleazy businesses is Vaughn’s old high-school friend Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough). After his first few hours as a guest of Hamilton’s casino, Vaughn catches a dealer scamming the players, and starts a big uproar with the casino employees. The security team then takes painfully wounds Vaughn and literally leaves him for dead. After incredibly recovering, the drug operations from Hamilton’s casino hits too close to home, and Vaughn takes his anger out on the casino again this time touting a 2x4 as his weapon of choice. Next, he runs for sheriff of the county and promises to clean up the community of all the crime to where the citizens can once again walk tall. A story of this nature has been played out over and over again, with a hometown boy returning home to save the town from corruption with his own brand of justice. This film and the 1973 version are both inspired by the true story of Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser, who single handily clean up his corrupted county. The true story and the 1973 film were far more brutal than this new version. Vaughn is actually the replacement of Pusser and the setting is altered. The 1973 film garnered controversy do to notions of vigilante-ism and violence. Pusser in fact killed the bad guys, in this version The Rock just beats them to a pulp. However, though Chris Vaughn is standing up for a town and his beliefs, his way about doing it is not the most politically correct or ethical, ala “Dirty Harry.” The script for the film is short and sweet, but still has many inconsistencies and absolute hilarity in some moments. All of the characters are underdeveloped and even Vaughn’s background is not totally defined. There are also quick resolutions to the character’s relationships. An example is after Vaughn harps on his nephew about drug use among other things; a tension is built between the two. However, half way through the film, it is like the two are happy family members with no explanation as to how they got to that point. The preposterous moments also really bring the film down. Examples include Vaughn’s dunce representation of himself during his trial, in which he fires his lawyer, represents himself, gives a closing monologue, gets off, and then becomes sheriff in about 8 minutes of screen time. Director Kevin Bray could have played the sequence out a little more and revamped it to be at least somewhat believable. It is also obvious that Vince McMahon was pulling strings as executive producer, with focus revolving around male audiences. The truly pointless choice in this film by Bray and McMahon is during a bullet frenzy action sequence, the character of Deni (Ashley Scott), who is Vaughn’s stripper love interest, runs around screaming while in a pink bra. The obvious sex appeal notion is downright embarrassing. The film itself is not unwatchable though. In fact, it is fun at times to see The Rock get furious with the bad guys and more amusing to watch him destroy targets with his 2x4. Bray does not shy away from letting The Rock drive this movie, which works in the film’s favor. Though he still has a way to come, The Rock has the persona and likeability to be a huge action star; he just needs to garner better projects. Jackass’s Johnny Knoxville plays Vaughn’s best friend and deputy Ray. Knoxville really just plays himself, but with that devilish grin and unbalanced notions, he steals an ample amount of the film with his humor. Band of Brothers’ Neal McDonough plays the villain rich boy Jay, and does what he can with the role, though it is nothing memorable. Walking Tall is a good vehicle film for The Rock and it is entertaining to watch him become irritated and eventually revengeful. However, this film is something that we have all seen before, and it is thrown together very disorderly and promptly. In reference to the notions of the original film, this version does not have the merit to be held as controversial; it is just an outlet of exposure to build The Rock’s future. Grade: C Site Contents Copyright© The Z Review, unless used with permission.This site has no intention to infringe on the rights of the film owners of Walking Tall and intellectual copyright holders of the movies mentioned herein & hold copyright over the movie, characters, merchandise & storyline. |
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