Walking Tall (2004)

Rock solid action!

This is one film where you'll that the Rock sure can act. He plays a Army Officer named Chris Vaughn who has come home to find the town full of corruption and greed. Its a great film even though its rather short just running under eighty minutes. Here the Rock (Dwayne Johnson) starts to clean up the town and boy do I mean clean up the town. The plot is great followed by great action scenes, where he beats up the casino staff using a plank of wood. When elected sheriff by the town, he fires all the officers and gets one deputy in Johnny Knoxville. Johnny Knoxville plays as his best friend and is hilarious through out the film and makes the film even more enjoyable.

This film delivers with rock solid action and doesn't let up until the credits start rolling. It has everything that a good movie needs: great story, characters and great action scenes even though its only eighty minutes, who cares. This movie certainly is worth a look. October 25, 2008

Another Morality Play

"This film was inspired by a true story." The film begins by showing a ship on a lake that says the northwest. A man walks through the streets. The mill closed down, no work in town. The former sheriff died in a one-car accident (?). Cris learns more about his town. The film slowly introduces the characters, as if padding out the time. The football game does the same. There is a gambling casino in town. Cris sees the dealer switch dice; he wants to try again. Their security forces arrive and the fight begins. Cris is over-powered and banged up, then dumped in the rainy street. He recovers and returns home.

The head of the casino visits Cris and tries to make a deal. The casino operator owns the town. The sheriff is in cahoots with this institution. Does the casino also peddle drugs to teenagers? Cris takes a big stick and returns to the casino to recover his special force medallion that was stolen from him. Jay Hamilton says "this has changed our relationship a bit". Cris is arrested and represents himself at the trial. The jury decides on an acquittal! [Jury nullification?] Next Cris is the new sheriff and fires all the deputies. [Isn't democracy great?] A casino is a machine to print dollars. Sheriff Cris wants to clean out the crystal meth production in his county. [This plague of the country is seldom mentioned in Hollywood films. It is mostly domestically produced.]

One suspect is arrested and his truck taken apart in a search for drugs. Will there be revenge against Cris or his parents? [Will there be a lull in the story to surprise the viewers with sudden action?] The sheriff's truck explodes, his office is machine gunned. There is a shoot out, and the bad guys bite the dust. Cris learns where the meth lab is hidden. Will there be a final duel between Cris and Jay? Guess who wins?

The original 1972 film had a raw and gritty story that was far, far better. This film is slower paced with fewer actors, showing its low budget and cheaper script. This diluted version omits any references to crooked politicians in the state capital, and organized crime.
October 15, 2008

Walking Tall

A Great Movie To Watch ,You See Crooked Sheriff's In Other Movies And They Get Away ,But Not In This One October 12, 2008

I only bought it for one reason...

Well, I thought it was good, to a point. My favorite man, Kevin Durand was in it, and up until he died the movie rocked. But then I realized exactly how lame the movie really was. Lots of the Rock fighting and grunting. I'm not a big Rock fan, but Johnny Knoxville was pretty funny. He almost saved the movie for me. Almost. September 12, 2008

Good Movie

Walking Tall
I think two things we can all say about WWE Films are that: one- they will never be taken seriously, and two- they mostly produce under whelming films. WWE Films however played very little role in the making of this movie. The Rock and MGM Studios put on a very entertaining movie full of action and emotion.

Chris Vaughn, played by The Rock, returns home from the Special Forces. He soon found out that his home sweet home isn't the same place he left. It is a world filled with drugs. The drugs come from a casino owned by Chris's friend, Jay Hamilton.

Chris goes out with his friends to the casino to have a good time. He soon becomes agitated to find out that they are using loaded dice to screw people out of their money. The Rock, being the man that he is, takes exception to this and begins to tear the Casino to pieces in a brawl with security. Chris gets caught though and is taking to be brutally torn apart by them in a back room. They throw him out in the street for dead.

Luckily, The Rock lives and seeks vengeance. He soon becomes the sheriff and begins working on fixing the town. He quickly recruits one of his best friend's, Ray, to be his only officer. Ray is played by Johnny Knoxville and he does a great job of bringing a comical sense to this movie. It creates a good balance.

Chris's weapon of choice is a large piece of Cedar. That's right, he uses a huge piece of wood to put the hurt on people. This leads to some great action scenes. They use guns later on in the movie, but the scenes with the cedar are much better.

I would suggest this DVD to anyone. There are two extra commentaries worth listening to. One is by The Rock and the other is by the Director and Crew. Both of them are worth listening to. Other extras include deleted scenes, bloopers, and an alternate ending. July 5, 2008

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