Walking Tall Release Date: April 2, 2004 Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Neal McDonough, Johnny Knoxville Directed by: Kevin Bray
PREMIERE.COM'S REVIEW (posted 4/02/2004)
At barely 80 minutes, Walking Tall seems to be in a mad dash to reach its conclusion from the opening shots of the film. Short on story, character, and attempts to win viewers' emotional investment, the film only seems to take a breath when The Rock is making the baddies lose theirs.
A remake (in the vaguest of terms) of the 1973 hixploitation flick, Walking Tall trades the original’s Tennessee locale for Washington State and leading man Joe Don Baker for The Rock. The film opens with Chris Vaughn (The Rock) returning home after years of secretive work for the U.S. military. Vaughn finds that the local lumber mill has closed, and people are openly buying drugs in the alleys near Main Street, which is now a collection of boarded-up shops. It is quickly concluded that the blame rests with a seedy casino/whorehouse/drug haven, run by Vaughn’s high school rival, Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough). Needless to say, what follows is a violent game of one-upmanship, beginning with Vaughn being crowned as the local sheriff, hell-bent on cleaning the town of Hamilton and the casino.
As Vaughn, The Rock’s punches are louder than his words. He stands towering over the rest of the cast, staring down menacingly at his rivals, occasionally muttering thinly veiled threats. Vaughn is a version of a workingman’s hero, à la John Rambo. His vigilante justice is appealing, though one wishes that the filmmakers had slowed down to fill in what’s at stake in Vaughn’s world. Walking Tall has its share of token subplots involving renewed relationships with the old girlfriend (Ashley Scott), best friend/comic relief (Johnny Knoxville), and family. Yet, these characters' contribution to the story is so minuscule that the audience would be just as involved if the Rock were fighting over that last protein shake at the local GNC.
Making a welcome return from the original is the 2x4 that Vaughn uses to handily dispatch a team of attackers at the casino. Director Kevin Bray (All About the Benjamins) initially wanted to update the weapon of choice to an aluminum bat, but in the end he wisely stuck to the original prop—there's something so much more folksy about defending yourself with a piece of lumber than going on a rampage with a metal baseball bat. Other than that, nearly everything is different from the original. Do you really think the Rock would allow his character to be called Buford Pusser?
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