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More "Walking Tall" Reviews
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| Indy Star.com - 4/02/04 The Rock walks tall with a big stick in vigilante justice film Here's the best news about The Rock's remake of "Walking Tall." It's really short. If you're making a movie about some good old-fashioned vigilante head bashing, it's best if you make it quick. The new "Walking Tall" clocks in at 80 minutes. Be grateful there's no moralizing or proselytizing about the lead character's vengeful action. The bad guys deserve to be hit upside the head and The Rock obliges. End of story. There's more welcome news: The Rock is more appealing -- and certainly more muscular than Joe Don Baker, the star of the 1973 original "Walking Tall." Of the various wrestlers and weightlifters turned actors, he seems the brightest, most charismatic and likeable so far. It's pure genius to cast him as an avenging angel in this B-movie remake. And Rock's character name (Chris Vaughn) rolls more comfortably off the tongue than Baker's Buford Pusser (even if Pusser was the real-life Tennessee sheriff who inspired the story.) Otherwise, the core of the story remains the same, even though the locale has been shifted from Tennessee to the rustic, pine-scented State of Washington. Vaughn, a former high school football star and ex-Special Forces soldier, returns to his hometown for the first time in eight years, and discovers it's gone to hell. The town lumber mill has been closed down and a corrupt malaise abounds. The town is under the thumb of rich playboy Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough). After inheriting the mill, he promptly closed it and opened a casino, instead. It is there that he and his cohorts deal in cards, pornography and drugs. He owns the cops and has the townspeople cowering in fear. Being a righteous fellow, Vaughn expresses his indignation and, for his troubles, he's beaten, slashed and left for dead. If that's not enough, his 11-year-old nephew almost dies after a drug encounter. So Vaughn picks up a cedar two-by-four and goes headhunting. Like Baker's Pusser, Vaughn's vigilante behavior is rewarded. He's elected sheriff and soon has the bad guys on the run. The Rock's performance matches the movie -- it's a lean, unadorned performance. Johnny Knoxville as his one loyal old friend provides comic relief. McDonough is a blond-haired, blue-eyed Arian devil as Jay. He's so mean, you'll look around your theater seat for a two-by-four of your own. Kevin Bray directs in journeyman fashion. Astonishingly, this simplistic exercise is credited to five writers. If you take an amoral movie like this too seriously, you'll feel guilty for enjoying it. So don't take it seriously. Portland Tribune - 4/02/04 The Rock keeps remake of "Walking Tall" real New version moves to Northwest, still packs a wallop It's the motion picture that asks the musical question "Is that a 4-by-4 hunk of cedar in your hand, or are you just glad to see me?" Well, in "Walking Tall" it is a 4-by-4 in the Rock's hand, because he isn't glad to see what's happened to his hometown while he was away in the Army. The old lumber mill has shut down, and the smell of fresh-cut cedar has been replaced by the stench of dirty money emanating from a sleazy casino. It's time to take out the trash and clean up the town. If this sounds familiar, it's supposed to. Actually, it sounds familiar because it's the basic plot of at least a million movies, but what we're talking about is the 1973 smash (and we mean that literally) hit (that, too) starring Joe Don Baker as tall-walkin' Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser, a real-life hero who cleaned up hometown corruption with his trusty baseball bat. That "Walking Tall" spawned two theatrical sequels and a couple of television incarnations before this return to the big screen. Former pro wrestler the Rock (Dwayne Johnson when he's at home) -doesn't look much like a Buford, so his character's name has been changed to Chris Vaughn, and his hometown now appears to be in northern Washington (somebody mentions going "down to Seattle"). Shot in British Columbia, where there probably aren't many Bufords either, it is still "inspired by a true story," which in current Hollywood parlance basically translates as "Something kinda like this happened somewhere, sometime." The original was a sort of last hurrah for veteran B-movie director Phil Karlson, who delivered the rabble-rousing goods with crude efficiency. Remake director Kevin Bray, a veteran of -- how'd you guess? -- music videos, figures we already know the drill and pretty much just cuts to the crunch. The film itself (without 10 minutes of final credits) runs only 75 minutes, almost an hour less than Karlson's. Unlike the R-rated original, which was pretty brutal even by post-"Wild Bunch" standards, this "Tall" only walks to a PG-13 beat, so as not to risk losing some of the Rock's fan base. It's filled with thunderous artillery and the kind of fights in which every punch sounds like an express train hitting an ox, but it's not as gory in its entirety as any given minute of "The Passion of the Christ." The Rock's nemesis is given a properly creepy sheen by Neal McDonough , but the best fight is between one of McDonough's scrawnier minions and former "Jackass" Johnny Knoxville as the Rock's good buddy and comic-relief deputy. The two doofuses swap numerous shotgun blasts in the confines of a living room, miss every time and are reduced to pummeling each other like kids. It's a bracing moment of realism in the midst of a cartoon. Still, His Rockness is shaping up as an engaging action star, and this is the kind of "serious" role that doesn't tax his developing skills. And, hey, if you don't like him already, you know you're not going to this thing anyway. You can walk the walk, but can you rock the Rock? |
San Francisco Gate - 4/02/04 Careful with that big stick,mister "Walking Tall'' is a remake of an earlier movie based on a true story, except that this time the story is entirely fictional. The title is the same as the original 1973 film, but virtually everything else has been changed, including the location, the characters, the circumstances, the protagonist's name and the time period. Only one thing remains, the image of a big guy carrying a big stick. This time the big guy is The Rock, who once again shows himself to be an estimable action lead, with a convincing inner calm, a natural good-guy demeanor and the look of a man who can do serious damage. The movie itself is just a routine showcase, modest in its aspiration and effective within its limits, entertaining in the moment but, in the end, faintly silly. On the plus side, it's only 86 minutes long. Nobody tried to pump this one up by pretending it's more important than it is. Buford Pusser was the name of the real-life Southern sheriff whose life formed the basis of the 1973 "Walking Tall,'' starring Joe Don Baker. This time the setting is Washington state and the hero is Chris (The Rock), an Army Special Forces guy who returns home after eight years only to find his hometown transformed. Old revered businesses are boarded up, while adult book stores are thriving. Everything is gray and threadbare, and even the sun doesn't shine. The old mill, the basis of the local economy, is history, and now the only game in town is a sleazy casino. The situation is pure formula, rather like a western, or like Henry Fonda's coming home from prison at the start of "The Grapes of Wrath.'' But in the early moments there's something satisfying in seeing formula done competently. Walking into his seedy hometown, Chris meets the new sheriff (Michael Bowen), who's effusive and friendly, but we know right away that something isn't right. Chris acts reserved toward him. Obviously, the sheriff is bad news because Chris dislikes him on sight. It's skillful when a movie can make an audience feel that the hero is reading a man's character, rather than that the filmmakers are telegraphing information. But the sheriff is just a minion. The real head of the town is Jay, the man who closed down the old mill and started the casino. As Jay, Neal McDonough has the right look, a slick veneer, bleached blond hair and a lean dapper look, and he brings more to this villain's role than can be found in the script. He gives him an extra something behind the eyes. McDonough lets us see that Jay, once friends with Chris, admires his former friend's authenticity. Jay is all facade, cool by force of will and self-control, while Chris is just himself. It's the running undercurrent throughout "Walking Tall'' and the closest this movie comes to complexity: Jay is seeking Chris' admiration. But "Walking Tall'' descends into the ridiculous fairly quickly. Early in the movie, on Jay's invitation, Chris visits the casino, where he finds out that one of the crap games is rigged. Does he tell Jay to straighten out the situation? No, that would be too easy. Instead he demolishes the place. Of course, it's just possible that the whole point of The Rock as movie star is the vicarious thrill of watching him wreck property. The original "Walking Tall'' was propelled by moral indignation, as well as a pervasive fear of encroaching social instability. Here the moral indignation is just a pretense. The movie doesn't care about Chris' town, and the audience doesn't, either. The kick here is dumb and visceral. It's in the fun of seeing The Rock slowly get out of a car, carrying a block of cedar. It's in waiting for someone to get stupid enough to make him angry. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer - 4/02/04 The Rock leaves no stone unturned in satisfying remake of "Walking Tall" The original 1973 "Walking Tall" -- which told the true story of crusading Tennessee Sheriff Buford Pusser -- was an authentic movie phenomenon that single-handedly created the "Southern" action genre, and spawned two sequels, a TV-movie remake and a TV series. But this new theatrical remake makes some big changes to the template. It has been updated, fictionalized (the hero is named Chris, not Buford), moved to our own state's Kitsap County, and reconceived as a vehicle for the fast-rising, multiethnic action superstar, The Rock. It still celebrates the vigilante spirit and justice delivered with a biblical swiftness, but it has been cleansed of much of its gratuitous violence and more offensive red-neck sensibilities. Mercifully, it's also a full 40 minutes shorter than the original. In this version, the hero is an Army special forces vet who returns to his small hometown after many years, only to find the lumber mill closed and the main industry a gambling casino run by his slimy high school rival (Neal McDonough). The villain tries to bring Chris into the corruption, but he resists and -- after a savage beating and mutilation by box-knife (the most feared weapon of our time) -- he is elected sheriff and goes after the crooks with everything he's got, including his favorite 2-by-4 club. Granted, it s not exactly "On the Waterfront" and will not be contending for Oscars, but it does have some bite. Without being ponderous about it, the script makes a compelling case that legalized gambling can have a devastating residual effect on a small community. The film's action sequences also have a certain freshness that goes down well. As in last year's Rock-vehicle, "The Rundown," they're stylized but believable, and a welcome step away from the Hong Kong-style fight choreography that's ruled the movies for the past 20 years. In general, the performances are much better than they need to be for a gutbuster like this. John Beasley is quietly touching as the hero's father, McDonough makes a splendidly detestable heavy and even Johnny Knoxville comes off well as the hero's comic relief and sidekick. The Rock can be a bit wooden at times, but the stiffness works for his character, his monolithic presence grows more endearing as the movie progresses, and he has learned the lesson well that, for action heroes, less is almost always best. The New York Times - 4/02/04 A Sheriff Wrestles to Save a Town he latest messiah of the multiplex is Chris Vaughn, the character played by the former professional wrestler the Rock in "Walking Tall," which opens today nationwide. Crisply directed by Kevin Bray, this film is a remake of the Nixon-era law-and-order hit of the same title, which was set in a Tennessee town taken over by vice peddlers, and starred Joe Don Baker as Sheriff Buford Pusser, a no-nonsense guy who cleaned up the streets with the help of a huge wooden club. In the new film, the action has been transposed to Washington State (probably to allow the producers to shoot in the budget-friendly confines of British Columbia), and the Southern sheriff has become a Special Forces veteran who returns to find his hometown, once a cozy logging community nestled in a mountain valley, turned into a hellish den of iniquity. Mothers abandon their squealing babies in their strollers while they duck into alleys to score methamphetamines; high school kids openly smoke marijuana; and the Main Street hardware store has been replaced by a Home Depot out by the highway. Mill workers, once dignified, are reduced to employment as bouncers in the town's only remaining business, the casino owned by Chris's childhood friend Jay Hamilton (a nicely menacing turn by Neal McDonough ). The big stick is back, too, and gets plenty of play once the fed-up townspeople elect Chris as their new, reform sheriff. Chris enlists his best buddy from high school (Johnny Knoxville), a reformed drug addict, to serve as his deputy, rescues his own childhood sweetheart (Kristen Wilson) from her career as a pole dancer at the casino and takes on his former friend's well-armed henchmen in what quickly becomes an apocalyptic battle of Good versus Evil. With a brisk running time of 86 minutes, "Walking Tall" has no more fat on it than the Rock himself, a hulking yet curiously ingratiating presence who seems the most likely candidate to replace Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as America's favorite living comic book character. For all of his bulk, the Rock has a mildness of speech and a modesty of bearing that immediately give him a human dimension, something Mr. Schwarzenegger did not achieve until well into his career. Unlike so many of our recent action heroes, the Rock seems to be less about anger and revenge than about justice and self-discipline, a nuance that is also a saving grace. |
The Seattle Times - 4/02/04 Walking Tall: The Rock sticks it to the bad guys in slick remake Imagine the marketing meetings for the new "Walking Tall" remake: "You'll get board aplenty, but not bored!" Brilliant. High fives. "I don't know if you noticed, but this ain't exactly home anymore," a townie tells the returning hero. No kidding. Sure, drugs and squalor are everywhere. But this remake of the 1973 redneck drive-in classic is also much shorter and slicker (thus better for an addict's attention span), with lots of pumped-up action scenes and not a lot in-between them. Buford Pusser, the real Tennessee sheriff, is now fictional Special Forces vet Chris Vaughn (pro wrestler The Rock, aka Dwayne Johnson). As it happened, the 1973 hero was an ex-wrestler. He's returning not to Tennessee but to rural Washington state. The old mill's gone dark and the new thriving business is a casino, where the dice are as loaded as the kids scoring drugs there. When Vaughn spots a craps dealer cheating his friend, a brawl starts and he tosses scummy security guards around like rag dolls — until they overpower him, carve him up and leave him for dead on the side of the road. Enter the famous board, the swinging wood of revenge. It's Vaughn's weapon of choice when on-the-take local fuzz shoo him away with a threat. Slot machines, arms — the board busts 'em all. And when Vaughn successfully runs for Kitsap County sheriff, he pink-slips the crooked deputies and vows to bust the casino boss ("Minority Report's" icy-eyed Neal McDonough ), who tries to buy him off. But the boss has a lot of bad guys in his pocket. The action is rip-roaring, and The Rock has undeniable charisma. But he's too much of a superhero, so white-toothed-godlike and invincible that you never worry much about the outcome. Even after what look like crippling blows, he gets back up and has at 'em. He tears off a tree limb for a weapon. For all its cheapness and roughness, the old Joe Don Baker "Walking Tall" was rather harrowing. Johnny Knoxville deserves mention as the recovering-addict sidekick Vaughn deputizes. Apart from the appropriateness of casting the masochistic "Jackass" star in a movie with so much punishment, it turns out he's not a bad actor. While the movie smartly plays things straight, Knoxville's character infuses humor that fits well — and he looks like he's having a ball, especially when gleefully demolishing a henchman's truck. As for "Walking Tall" running short: You can't get bored during the official running time of 85 minutes, which seemed a few minutes shorter to me. When the credits roll after the climactic beatdown, the story feels like it's missing an act. As the recent remakes of '70s exploitation go, it's much more satisfying than the pointless gross-out of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" but doesn't hit its marks like "Dawn of the Dead." Tennessean.com - 4/02/04 Walking Tall is a formulaic, cliché-riddled travesty that only the most diehard fans of The Rock would like. Otherwise, good movie! I joke because this movie really is laughable. There are several dramatic ''high points'' where the writing and acting are so cheesy that you can't help but giggle. In the film, Chris Vaughn (The Rock, aka Dwayne Johnson) is a retired soldier who comes home to find his town is completely corrupt, in the pocket of evil casino owner Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough ), who once was Vaughn's high school rival. After Vaughn is nearly killed by his old rival's gang, Vaughn's old pal Ray Templeton (played by Johnny Knoxville of MTV's Jackass fame) sums the change up this way: ''I don't know if you noticed but this ain't exactly home anymore.'' Oy. The plot: Vaughn has a run-in at the evil casino and gets tortured and left for dead. Then he gets arrested for getting revenge, gets off after defending himself in court, gets elected sheriff and saves the town. Hooray! Oy. On the plus side, The Rock and McDonough generate great on-screen tension. And that ends the plus side. The shame is that this in any way is tied to the real-life story of Buford Pusser, who lost his life in his fight against corruption when he was sheriff of nearby McNairy County in Tennessee. This Rock movie seems to strip away any dignity from Pusser's memory. But if you're into cheesy action movies, you're in luck: There are at least three group fight scenes, a massive shoot-out and one hot ex-stripper running around in a red bra. Orlando Sentinel - 4/02/04 Acting softly, with a big stick. Strong men, weak dialogue. The remake of a classic is a career blow to The Rock. Walking Tall is a lean, mean, beat-guys-with-a-stick remake of a film that became a drive-in smash in 1973. Stripped of its Southernness, if not its redneck chic, it's just as violent, just as trashy and just as reliant on satisfyingly simple-minded brawls as the original. Painstakingly re-tailored to suit the talents of pro-wrestling actor turned screen star The Rock, it's still a vengeance fantasy about a simple man who wants to rescue his rural town, this time in Washington state, from the iron grip of the wealthy vice peddler who has taken it over. Sheriff Buford Pusser was a real-life folk hero, a martyred Tennessee sheriff who was also a self-promoting folk icon, the "inspiration" for the original Walking Tall and its sequels. Here, he's been watered down to the wholly fictional Chris Vaughan. He's a Special Forces sergeant returned from the wars with one more battle to fight. His lumber town has been overrun by drugs, gambling and assorted other low occupations. The ex-girlfriend (Ashley Scott) is now a glass-booth stripper at the Wild Cherry Casino. Dad (John Beasley, well-cast) has been forced to sell homemade furniture now that the lumber mill has closed. And nephew Pete (Khleo Thomas, also well-cast) is getting into trouble with the potheads and crystal-meth pushers in town. All troubling enough. And the head bad guy, Jay Hamilton, played with the blue-eyed, platinum blond menace of a Nazi by Neal McDonough , even cheats at touch football, getting his teammates to crack-block Chris in his bad knee. Still, Chris goes along with the boys to the casino for a little crooked gambling and private dancing. It's the crooked gambling that sets Chris off. One brawl later, the bad guys slash up the good guy's chest with a box cutter. And it's payback time. Chris is assisted in this by a very big stick -- a 4x4 that he eventually whittles down to a club -- and by his ex-con, ex-addict pal, played by Johnny Knoxville, who supposedly picked up a $5 million paycheck for screwing up The Rock's movie. Which brings up several troubling questions. Why, if The Rock is fast becoming a movie star, would he settle for a director with only All About the Benjamins experience, (Kevin Bray)? Why did it take four screenwriters, working from the script for the original Walking Tall, to come up with lines like this? "Did you get tired of being all you could be?" "I'm still all I can be." Why was the big stick the only thing to survive from the original Walking Tall, which had a compelling and frightening truth about corruption and crime at the heart of its violence? And who, in his right mind, would pay Johnny Knoxville, a singularly unfunny guy when he's not being abused, Jackass style, $5 million? A couple of scenes are well-handled. It's interesting that Vaughan's biracial family is seen but not highlighted as such. The inevitable courtroom scene, swaying the jury with his memories of a town that used to "walk tall," is professionally shot. And The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) has some acting chops. Faking it for the WWE taught him timing, how to animate his face and play a character. But he showed us more in the slicker, funnier The Rundown (now out on DVD) last fall. The guy can be a movie star. But you only get so many chances to make good choices. He can either become a cut-rate Arnold (Chuck Norris). Or he can pick films that will reach beyond his wrestling fan-base and make the movies his new arena. The jury's still out on that. But Walking Tall can only be seen as a big step backward for The Scorpion King. |