March 31, 2004

I saw a preview of The Rock’s upcoming new movie Walking Tall today. At a slim 75 minutes the movie somewhat entertaining but did not have enough characterisation to make up for the sometimes-brutal violence. The movie had a reasonable first act that introduced the character of former Special Forces soldier Chris Vaughn who returns to his home town in the Northwest to discover it run down and seedy. Soon he discovers that a former friend, Jay Hamilton has inherited and shutdown the town’s lumber mill and has opened a casino. Inevitability the two some into conflict as it becomes apparent that the casino is crooked and that Hamilton is dealing drugs from it leading to The Rock’s character taking both Hamilton – with a 4 by 4 and the crooked cops by running against them in a election for sheriff. Overall 2 out of 4 stars. Maybe if there are deleted scenes about the election plot and more non-violent scenes between Vaughn and Hamilton that can be restored a DVD cut could get 2.5 stars. 11:44:10 PM