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A perfect snapshot of 2003
2003’s biggest surprise (besides The OC and maybe Arnold becoming a governor.) A movie, star, and director that are collectively SO much better than you’d expect. Remember 2003? This movie encapsulates it. The Rock is a professional bounty hunter who hates his job, guns, and a wannabe Indiana Jones named Travis (Seann William Scott), who’s too busy searching for a mythical golden artifact in the Amazon to answer his dad’s phone calls. Rosario Dawson is reliably great in a well-written part that’s basically Karen Allen from Raiders of the Lost Ark minus the drinking competition (👎) and romance (👍).
What follows is a buddy comedy where “buddy” mostly means “I’ll beat you up if you don’t stop talking.” The Rock tries to keep a straight face while dealing with angry rebels, homicidal monkeys, and Christopher Walken’s unhinged speech about tooth fairy folklore. Yep, that happens.
Add in some slow-motion fight scenes, a lot of jungle explosions, and more eyebrow-raises than we’d like to talk about, and you’ve got The Rundown—a movie that fosters this week’s conversation that needed to happen.
Joe’s Back of the Box
When bounty hunter Beck (The Rock) is tasked with bringing Travis Walker (Seann William Scott) home, he inadvertently stubbles into gold mining operation stripping the Amazon of its resources. Now forced to take sides for once in his life, can Beck defeat his inner demons in time to save the town? This movie packs a punch and then some with an explosive finale guaranteed to satisfy.
The REAL Back of the Box
To make a wrestling metaphor, This is the proverbial tagging in of the next big action star. Arnold Schwarzenegger even cameos in the opening scene. It has all the toxic masculinity you can handle filled with one dimensional characters yelling at each other. Yet, I still have a soft spot for this movie if for nothing else than Christopher Walken making every scene he is in perfect. There are some fun action scenes and genuinely funny moments wrapped around a movie you will forget in 5 minutes.