It comes fast, a split-second cameo: Arnold Schwarzenegger walks out of a bar and
yells, “Have fun!,” as Dwayne Johnson -– billed as “The Rock” for his wrestling -–
struts into a showdown that will have him clobbering most of a football team. Off
the bat, director Peter Berg in his second film is planting flags: Johnson is
the new Action King and “The Rundown” is a goofy, bone-cruncher flick from 1986.
And it is exactly that. Every beat, stunt, gag, and boom is wired to the days
of Reagan. Irritation? Yes. Likely the point? Fact. Plot: Johnson is Beck, a
bounty hunter sent to the Amazon to retrieve the son (Sean William Scott) of
his loan shark boss. In the jungle, his target easily found, Beck gets sucked
into a third-world slave camp (free market capitalism!) drama run by an evil
baron (Christopher Walken). Skulls crack, you know the rest. Johnson’s charisma
is strong as Berg dreams up cackling, chortling myriad ways to put his hero
through the ringer. Scott’s Wile E. Coyote irritates and needles Beck in the
film’s best unsaid gag: This is a bromance take on “Romancing the Stone,” one
of those great ’80s films. B
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