Dir.
Kevin Bray, 2004, USA , 87 mins
Cast:
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Johnny Knoxville, Neal McDonough, Ashley Scott
If there's one thing about the cash cow of commercial cinema that can knock the discerning moviegoer flat with awe and admiration, it's not The Rock wielding a 4ft piece of cedar but the industry's ability to sometimes suck every last breath of life out of an idea.
Or you can check-in your cynicism at the door, take your hats off to whichever canny MGM boss felt the world deserved a third remake of this film and enjoy it for what it is.
Essentially this is the story of an ex-US Special Forces soldier who returns to his town to find that, shock horror, baddies are feeding the kiddies drugs and have opened a strip-joint-cum-casino-cum-den-of-iniquity (where his ex-girlfriend now works as a dancer) in place of the defunct, salt-of-the-earth symbol of god-honest American goodness that was the town's lumber mill. It's got 'Made for late night Channel 5' written all over it, but you actually can't help but enjoy it for the fact that it's not trying to be anything other than a fairly decent action flick for boys.
Walking Tall is trash moviemaking at its best. Once you're aware that it's never going to give the Oscar judges a sleepless night you can actually begin to enjoy the clichés, the cod (but ultimately amusing) symbolism, The Rock beating everyone who crosses his path with a very large piece of wood, and Knoxville managing to shine through his obligatory set funnyman pieces. Incidentally, when is someone going to give this man the script he deserves? He's certainly got the screen presence and comic timing to make him the new Jack Black, even if you do half expect him to wander into shot wearing a suit made out of bees and excrement whilst the rest of his Jackass buddies use his ass as a skateboarding ramp. As it is he's ever so slightly unconvincing alongside The Rock as an enforcer of good, mainly due to the 'comic' ineptitude that's been written into his character, although he does get to flex his aptitude for pratfalls and incompetence in what is the best scene in the entire movie. Let's just say it involves sawn-off shotguns, an enclosed space and the inability to aim effectively and is worth the price of admission alone.
The most bizarre element of the film it has to be said is the (mis)casting of The Rock. Supposedly the underdog whose honest American values lead him to run for sheriff and attempt to clean up his town, the Rock actually looks like a man whose male pride has been knocked by the fact that his former school mate is now rich, powerful, has slept with his ex and is running the kind of club that makes grown men weep and think they've gone to heaven. Surely drugs, wet t-shirt competitions and women doing unspeakable things to lap dancing poles is what most Americans need to get through small town life?
According to The Rock, however, what they really, really need to be able to 'walk tall' in their town is to be beaten by an ex-pro wrestler five times their size who seems to be losing the battle for screen charisma to a plank of wood. He's a likeable presence however, and is much preferable to the Van Dammes and Schwarzeneggers of this world.
Walking Tall is good, formulaic fun when all's said and done and you can't argue with that. It'll inevitably debut on a small glittering screen in the corner of a lounge near you pretty soon, but if thud-bang-splat-thwack-tastic action is your kind of thing, then catch it on the silver screen whilst you can to do true justice to The Rock's weighty presence. You'll find yourself liking it despite your film snob alter ego.
Georgie Turnbull
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