The Rundown

You know this is a goofy movie when the Governator makes a cameo in the first reel, telling the Rock to "have fun." Yes, the torch has been passed to everyone's favourite African-Samoan-American refrigerator, who's clearly a capable action star and a better actor than Arnold was at this stage in his career (or ever, arguably). Unfortunately for the Rock, this vehicle is merely rental-worthy, if that. To its credit, the villain is Christopher Walken (more Walken!), who's thrown a few scraps of absurd dialogue to do his thing with. The Rock plays Beck, a burgeoning chef who wants out of his job as a heavy, but the big boss won't let him go without pulling one last job: retrieving his son, Travis (played by the massively punchable Seann William Scott), who's cavorting around the Amazon hunting treasure. It's a buddy movie with a bounty hunter twist, a colourful trek through the jungle interrupted by monkeys, guerrillas, hunting traps and Walken's crew of whip-wielding thugs. There's also some estrogenic tension courtesy of Rosaria Dawson (who Berg can't stop drooling over in his asinine commentary, co-helmed by the Rock) and plenty of impressively choreographed fights to put our ex-wrestler hero to proper use. While Berg and his Rockness spend most of their commentary rambling about stunts, FX and a nonsensical running joke about fighting Tom Arnold (who's not in the film), producers Kevin Misher and Marc Abraham have plenty of interesting and intelligent things to say in theirs, addressing Beck's refusal to use guns (until the inevitable climactic blow-out/cum shot), their reasons for shooting in Hawaii and a few industry insider frustrations. The "making of" featurettes are standard but plentiful, but please spare yourself "The Rundown: Uncensored," 'cause it's five minutes you'll never get back. (Universal)