The Rundown

Directed by Peter Berg, The Rundown follows The Rock’s Beck as he reluctantly agrees to retrieve an oddball treasure hunter (Seann William Scott’s Travis) from a small mining town in Brazil. It’s clear right from the get-go that Berg, armed with a script by R.J. Stewart and James Vanderbilt, isn’t looking to deliver a gritty, down-to-earth actioner, as the filmmaker has infused The Rundown with a perpetually slick feel that’s reflected most keenly in its larger-than-life fight sequences – with the glossy (and gravity-defying) bent of many of the movie’s high-octane moments exacerbated by Berg’s video-game-like visual sensibilities. There’s little doubt, then, that The Rundown‘s tolerable and periodically engaging atmosphere is due almost entirely to the charm of (and chemistry between) The Rock and Scott’s respective figures, as the performers turn in agreeable work that elevates the proceedings on a fairly continuous basis (and it doesn’t hurt, either, that Berg has elicited equally compelling efforts from periphery players like Christopher Walken and Rosario Dawson). By the time the larger-than-life (yet watchable, admittedly) climax rolls around, The Rundown has confirmed its place as a passable, entirely forgettable piece of work that’d hardly be worth mentioning were it not for the agreeable presence of both The Rock and Scott.

**1/2 out of ****