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The Rock Ran Before He Could Walk
Walking Tall exploits The Rock's strengths, but also shows his weaknesses as a new actor.

Starring: The Rock , Neal McDonough, Johnny Knoxville, John Beasley, Barbara Tarbuck, Kristen Wilson, Khleo Thomas, Ashley Scott, Michael Bowen
Directors: Kevin Bray

Reviewed by Kevin Cunningham

THE PITCH: An ex-soldier returns home to find his small town isn't what it used to be, with the mill closed and a casino spread drugs and other vices through his town. When the law doesn't help, he decides to become the law. IN OTHER WORDS: The Best Years of our Lives meets Tombstone in backwater Washington state.

The irony of it all.

Little is left from the 1973 original Walking Tall in this remake. Sheriff Buford Pusser is now known by Chris Vaughn. The small town in Tennessee is now a small town in Washington. One wonderful bit of irony remains, however. Where as Chris Vaughn is an ex-military man played by an ex-wrestler, Joe Don Baker's Buford Pusser was an ex-wrestler.

The Rock is a capably charming actor to begin with. He was excellent in The Rundown, and is easily able to carry a film on his natural charm and charisma. However, Walking Tall is an entirely different kind of role. Where his role in The Scorpion King and The Rundown allowed him to joke and insult his way through the film, Walking Tall's Chris Vaughn is a serious man, and rather angry at the world for allowing what's happened in his town to go on. The Rock has enough talent to do such a role, but he hasn't had enough experience yet. His performance is further hurt by some futile attempts to push his charm through. While that side of himself comes very naturally, it appears very forced when it comes to his character.

That sort of indecision with his character is even more detrimental to the film. The overall effort in this film is awfully schizophrenic. The first half of the film goes by like a serious drama. The Rock even gets through a rather impressive monologue disguised as a closing statement in court. But then, the 2nd half of the film becomes a pure action film, abandoning plot and character development for drawn out action scenes.

The worst part of this indecision is that it resulted in the film's being sliced into pieces. The end result is a horribly short 86 minutes. That keeps the dramatic scenes down to one real sequence, and then two action sequences so close together at the end that they become one drawn out bit. The pacing that comes as a result is fatal. It's not quite drama nor action, and it would have been better as either.

The rest of the film passes by without notice. Neal McDonough is passable as a villain, but doesn't really have much in the way of big scenes or nasty lines. There's nothing wrong with a villain who is hands off, as the best villains usually are. But he takes the fight on himself at the end, in a move that makes little sense, killing all his credibility. Johnny Knoxville is surprisingly good as the best friend/comic relief, but he had little to do. And then there's Ashley Scott, whose only role seems to be to appear in her bra as often as possible.

Don't get me wrong, it's a nice bra.

Walking Tall is definitely one of those films that needed another 20-30 minutes to succeed. Few films, particularly films directed at action crowds, need it, but there's a great story at the heart of this film, changed though it may have been, and it needed time to come out. But, if the only thing to come out of this film is that The Rock gains the experience to be a more well rounded actor in his next go-around, it may be enough.

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