Walking Tall (2004)

After watching the Fast Five (my review | Jim's review), I really wanted to see another Dwayne Johnson movie. I found a copy of "Walking Tall" lying around and because I have never seen that movie completely I decided to watch it. Though I remember Johnny Knoxville is in this movie meaning I wasn’t expecting a well-polished movie. But enough with the bush beating, let’s see what I thought.

Not until the end of the movie did I find out that this was a semi-biographical movie based on Buford Pesser. But in the movie, Dwayne’s character, Chris Vaughn, is a returning to his home town after serving 8 years with the U.S Army Special Forces. As he gets settled back into his old lifestyle, he finds out the old mill him and his father use to work at has closed down for the past 3 years. And now the supporting income for the town is the local Casino owned by his old friend Jay Hamilton. With a brief Casino visit Chris discovers that the casino is bringing in organized crime, drugs and the crooked cops are paid off by Hamilton. Now it is up to Chris and his trusty sidekick to be the fighting force to set this town right!

Chris Vaughn with his truck.

I had a lot of mixed feelings for the movie, starting off with the acting. Besides The Rock, everyone acted varying from mediocre to downright terrible. I am sure this movie didn’t try to be a b-list movie, but the acting felt like it. The only saving grace was Dwayne; he seemed to fit the role well. He was this true one man hero I wanted and definitely cheered him on throughout. But this is where I see another problem. The movie seems to have no sense of time, or at least I didn’t feel it. One minute he is in the hospital, the next he has been elected mayor of the town.

I find the movie way too complex and jam packed. As in, they try to fit in a lot of different scenario into an 86 minute film. There is a 10 minute court scene, a love scene, a bunch of action scenes, and numerous of montages. I really wished they took a few of the montages out and the lackluster love scene and in place put in some scenes of Johnson kicking butt! The few moments of Johnson kicking butt was great, he was shooting, swinging and even a lot of hand on hand combat. They were all fulfilling, but I expected nothing less.

The biggest surprise of this movie was the fact I felt good after watching it. This is a feel good movie; you are glad that good won over evil at the end. This movie is great to watch with the boys when there is nothing else on. It gets your testosterone rolling and Ashley Scott does give a (pole) ballerina performance, so there’s no harm in that!