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The Rundown (2003)

Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Blu-ray Disc Released: 2/10/2009

All Ratings out of
Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras: 1/2

Review by Mike Long, Posted on 2/3/2009
 

As someone who grew up in the South, I've been exposed to "professional wrestling" all of my life, but have never given it much credence, either as a sport or as entertainment. Even as wrestling began to invade popular culture, I continued to ignore it, and the attempts of wrestlers to cross over into other pursuits. So, it wasn't the presence of The Rock which drew me to The Rundown, but rather despite his presence in the movie, I was willing to give it a shot, and found myself pleasantly surprised.

The Rock stars in The Rundown as Beck, "retrieval expert" (AKA bounty hunter), who works for a ruthless thug named Billy Walker (William Lucking). Beck's dream is to leave the "retrieval" business and open his own restaurant. Billy agrees to pay Beck a large sum and allow him to retire, if he'll do just one more job; Beck is to travel to South America and find Billy's son Travis (Seann William Scott). Beck makes his way to the Amazon, where Billy has been spotted in a mining town, which is overseen by the evil Hatcher (Christopher Walken). Beck locates Travis, who has been in the jungles searching for an ancient artifact known as the "Gato". Travis proves to be a slippery quarry, and soon Beck finds himself immersed in a chase through the jungle involving rebels and Hatcher's goons.

Playing as a mix of Romancing the Stone, Midnight Run, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Rundown is a serviceable and fun action flick. The opening sequence is well-done and draws the viewer into the film. Once Beck reaches the jungle, the movie offers many exciting action sequences, including a jaw-dropping fight scene with a group of jungle-based fighters. As is to be expected, Seann William Scott offers some nice comedy relief, but The Rock has some funny moments as well. In contrast, Scott handles his action scenes with aplomb, showing off more of the skills that he first revealed in Bulletproof Monk. And, as usual, Christopher Walken appears to be in his own little movie. But, it's The Rock who must carry the film, and he does a very good job. He can deftly handle the physical aspects of the character, but he also does well with presenting Beck as a man who doesn't really like violence and just wants to do his job. No, The Rock is no master thespian, but he is able to convey his emotions well, and the fact that English is his native tongue puts him ahead of forerunners like Schwarzenegger.

And while The Rundown is fun, it isn't perfect. Apparently, actor turned director Peter Berg suffers from the same issues that George Clooney had when making Confessions of a Dangerous Mind -- this is, he felt that he had something to prove. The Rundown is way over-directed. This style works in the opening scene, where Berg makes creative use of sports-TV-like graphics to introduce characters. But, one the story reaches the jungle, things get out-of-hand. The film is littered with shots of the jungle, lest we forget where the action is taking place. There is literally a shot of the jungle between each scene. And, if there's not a shot of the jungle, then there's one of Hatcher's men riding around in dune buggies. This turns what could have been a lean-and-mean 90-minute film into a 105-minute that drags at times. (But, I must say that I haven't seen Very Bad Things, so I don't know if Berg has done this before.) The Rundown is a decent action film that's worth checking out, as it's better than you think it'd be. It's not great, but one gets the feeling that if The Rock gets the right script, he could make a classic action film.

The Rundown flees onto Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Universal Home Video. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc contains a VC-1 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 20 Mbps. This is a tough one to call. The image is sharp and clear, showing only a slight amount of grain and no defects from the source material. Yet, it also has a hazy look and isn't very crisp. The colors are good, and the image shows some depth, but there isn't a great amount of detail here. In short, it doesn't have they Blu-ray look to which we are accustomed. The same can't be said for the audio. The Disc offers a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 4.5 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The action sequences here sound incredible and certainly achieve demo disc status. The stereo effects are very detailed and show great separation. The surround effects are nearly constant and do justice to the sound design, as we hear every individual bullet whiz by. The subwoofer action is good as well, as the finale contains wall-shattering explosions.