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Walking Tall

Much better, The Rock has finally made a more adult film.
This a good update of the orginal, the action is good both he and Johnny Knoxville are very watchable.
All Dwayne Johnson needs to do now is star in big budget violent extragavanzas like Total Recall, to be a worthy succsessor like Arnie.

Liked it a lot

Walking Tall is a remake. I've never seen the original, but I sure do like the new one.

The Rock plays Chirs Vaughn. He's a former special service soldier in the army who is returning home to settle down. He comes home to a different town. The town in now run by the crooked law and the casino owner Jay Hamilton(Neal McDonough) who was a friend of Chris. After a couple of incidents where people are hurt Chris decides to run for sheriff. After becoming sheriff he apoints his friend Ray(Knoxville) to help him restore justice to the town.

(...)I liked Johnny Knoxville in the movie. When this guy isn't killing himself on Jackass he seems to be a real cool guy. He does a great job playing the side kick of the rock. He has a future in acting if he wants it. His fans will like him a lot in this. He's funny and so are his fight scenes.

One of the big knocks on this film is whether a small town in North Carolina could be that corrupt. I honestly don't know. I live around some small towns and some of them have crooks for cops and bad poloticians. I looked past in the movie because I didn't care about it. It was a fun story.

I liked Ashley Scott who plays Deni in the movie who is love interest. It's great to see Ashley on screen again. I liked her in Birds of Prey it was just a bad show. She is hot in the movie.

I liked this movie a lot. It's more of a guy film. Lots of great action that isn't likely possible to ever happen. Lots of gun fire and explosions. There's also a piece of cedar you like to see get used. It's a fun film and if you can look past the whole town thing it really is a fun movie.

Good thing it is based on a true story

If this movie was not based on a true story, I would have serious issues with the plot. Seeing, that this really happened adds a sense of forgiveness to the plot. The script isn't well polished even though it had writing credits for about 6 people. With that being said, it is a good movie.The Rock really makes this movie. The energy that he demonstrates on screen is massive. His prescence is a commanding force. He trully is the next big action star. You got to see The Rock's acting ability, which is pretty good.In a time where movie-goers are use to 2 hour long movies this movie was only about 1hr 20 minutes and that was including the credits. Many websites have this movie listed at 111 minutes which is 1 hr 51 minutes and the movie is not that long, do not be fooled.Even though the movie is short it is still a complete story. Being a writer myself I've found that the shortest version of a movie script is usually the best. I would hate to see this movie come out on DVD and they have 30-40 minutes worth of deleted scenes. If that is true then they cleary cut the movie down to keep a sacred PG-13 rating.This is good date movie. It has action scences for the guys and a little romance for the ladies. I give this movie 8 out of 10!GO ENJOY THE SHOW!

Great Movie

I though this movie was too short. The Rock plays Chris Vaughn an ex military man returning home to find the town where he grew up in trouble. The police force is corrupt and the townspeople have become oppressed by the casino bosses. The Rock on his first day back in town gets beat up and tortured by the casino security after the Rock calls a craps dealer out on his cheating.

But he quickly recuperates and takes vengeance on the casino. Smashing machines and breaking arms. Then while in court the evidence is mounting against him. The Rock fires his lawyer for some reason and represents himself by somehow being allowed to give a closing statement instead of you know, doing proper court things. As he stands over the jury he claims he is going to run for sheriff and clean up this town and that is why he is innocent of smashing private property and assaulting 6 people. Then he opens his shirt to reveal the healed scar across his chest from the torture that took place 12 minutes before.
He is indeed found innocent. And then immediately elected sheriff. At once he fires the entire police force and hires one friend; Johnny Knoxville to be his deputy. They immediately go on a corrupt spree of revenge and abuse of power.

Now it is the casino's turn for revenge. They open fire on the police station where the Rock was about to make time with an ex stripper from the casino. An old girlfriend; we are supposed to assume. Of course The Rock and the stripper make it out.

From here on it is ass kicking all over the place. Then it was over as fast as it came, like a Florida rain shower in the summer. It came, dropped it's load and vanished leaving only a wet spot.

I think he killed everyone in the town. there was just nobody left, so he just kinda looked at the camera, yelled cut and then killed the camera man. then the credits rolled. but everything was done by the Rock.

I give it three thumbs up.

Very good time

Ok, Walking Tall is by no means the best movie ever released...not even close to the best action movie. BUT, it's a good movie! You can go, have alot of fun and laughs. I have seen many many movies that were a lot worse than this one! Walking Tall will keep u laughing throughout the entire film, and Knockville is hilarious!Now the story is not very complex, but it doesn't matter. If you want to go to a movie u have to think about, then don't go see this one! There's nothing for you to figure out, just enjoy it.A lot of people don't like action movies, but just give this one a chance and u'll be entertaint. The Rock is 3 for 3 in his movies. Hope u like it.

watchable for the Rock, for more of the story, look to the original

I was looking forward to seeing this as I saw the familiar MGM lion and logo--God, one of my favorites!--and when I did, i was vaguely familiar with the story of Bufford Pusser and what happened to him back in the late 1960s. But apart from seeing the Rock on screen and a few moments of action, and the Rock does have charm and likability, this movie bares hardly any resemblance to the 1973 original starring Joe Don Baker. If you want to see more of the story and what caused him to become sheriff and take on the corrupt townspeople, this movie doesn't do much. I finally got to see the first film.You do see the Rock like Baker come back to his old town, and Baker's character was a wrestler wanting to retire, like the Rock in real life. But here the Rock is coming home from serving in the Army, and finds the mill closed and the town going to hell. You do see some of the discontent, but here apart from seeing his girlfriend forced to strip for a living, his father feeling bummed out from being laid off, and signs of people loitering about, there are no signs or indications of say how the town was! before the Rock left. you have to take it on faith that the closing of the mill destroyed his home town. There was gambling and corruption in the Baker film, but there the men were more visible, there was more antagonism, and more reason for Baker to feel he had to do something. The movie fights were dated and maybe the look is dated, but there was more motivation. The movie drifted from some of the facts about Pusser's life, but you see those creeps leave him for dead, and they did in the remake too, but there were a few more attempts on Pusser's life, more anguish--his wife was shot and killed, and he was repeatedly threatened and intimidated. The Rock got disgusted by the police's inaction, and broke the guy's bar and I don't blame him!--and in both movies he was wrongfully arrested, and both made their speeches to the juries--but in this version, somehow, it doesn't seem as affecting or as involving.This version is also too short, clocking in at 70 odd minutes, and it seems there was something missing in between his arrival and his arrest and then his successful run as sheriff. It is amusing though that he hires his friend to be his one and only deputy, and he even tells the Rock he is a convicted felon. But the Rock doesn't care, he wants a guy whom he can trust. But it doesn't seem to be smart, having only two against all these other guys that have more muscle power than you do. And to ignore criminal procedures isn't the smartest thing either; Baker did the same thing too, but there it seemed to be a reaction to the utter lack of respect for the law that the supposed upholders of the law held, and those men used the law at every turn for their own benefit. At least, when the Rock and Baker twist the law, they have the excuse of the good of the community.The movie ends with the opening of the mill again after the Rock and Knoxville defeat the villain. Seems easy somehow, after all that had happened, it can be re-opened just like that. Who bought it, for one, and why did it close in the first place? There isn't much motivation or story here. Apart from seeing the Rock and his getting McDonough in the end, there isn't too much to this version.Based on a true story..inspired by actual events...The Baker one was based on Pusser's story but some things were inevitably changed. The one with the Rock appears! to be a remake of this movie, but it is based more on the movie and adding details to further fictionalize the story more than it is based on Pusser's life, and it isn't really a re-make either.In conclusion, while this isn't a bad film, it is really not a good one either. It seems to start, get somewhere and just stops...It doesn't really end.Good use of the Allman Brothers song though. The opening sequence is about the best moment.

What kind of name is the Rock?

Words probably can't express how bad this movie is, but let's see... You can see every plot turn coming from a mile away, all the bad guys are preposterously bad, the cliches are running amok (the mill closed, things aren't how they used to be, cops are corrupt, the casino runs the town, kids are doing drugs, somebody needs to Clean Up This Town) The courtroom scene is one of the most laughably unrealistic in recent memory. Script is bad, acting is bad. When Johnny Knoxville is, by far, the best thing about your movie, you're in trouble. The one mark in the plus column: mercifully, the film clocks in at under 75 minutes!

Good movie, good action, good comedy, too short.

Good movie, alot of amazing action sequences, times that make you laugh, it has everything an action movie needs, except the fact that it was a bit too short. The Rock was a great choice to act as the headstrong character Chris Vaughn, in my opinion. Overall, i thought this movie was good, funny scenes, good intense battles, ok acting, its all good. *** outa ****.I would recommand this movie for others who like to see a lot of fighting, guns firin off, domination, and comedy and especially those who are a huge fan of The Rock such as myself. Tonight when I saw this, it was only the sneak preview of the movie, so it didnt like have previews or anything and the theatre was so narrow I felt claustrophobic, and I would have to say that I would be more that delighted to see this movie again when it comes out...

Kick-ass action all the way through

This is the kind of movies The Rock should concentrate on. He simply makes the best one-man army since Arnold "The King" Schwarzenegger was around in the movie business. The story is somewhat simple and not original at all, but that's the way it should be in a movie like this. No need trying to complicate things with attempts at advanced acting and other things like that. It's the ACTION and only the ACTION people watch these movies for. And I have to say that it was very good. The Rock is the right man for the job, and it was extremely cool watching him trash the bad guys in such a heavy way.9 out of 10

Excellent!

Are you looking to see a brand new, emotion filled action packed masterpiece? Well, you won't get emotion filled, but with this movie you certaintly will get "brand new" and "action packed". This movie is getting slammed by critics because it is overly violent (yet "Dawn of the Dead" gets great reviews), and I feel that is unjust, because that could direct movie goers away, when this movie should make big money...because it deserves to.

While I'm not saying the movie isn't violent, because it sure as hell is and I sometimes questioned what kept it from getting slammed with an R-Rating, the violence is quite tame when compared to other movies. The Rock pics up some wood and goes into a casion and smacks the crap out of everyone. However, the camera always cuts to the person's back or another part of his body so you can't see the effect. So, you might want to keep this movies away from the 2-year olds, but I know I watched movies like this when I was 5 and I turned out OK.

Also, the movie has humor. I wouldn't call it an action comedy like the Rock's last movie, "The Rundown" was, because there isn't THAT much humor. Most of the humor is supplied by Jackass Johnny Knoxville, who steals every scene he's in. I'm a big fan of Jackass and have been p*ssed ever since it got cancelled, but it gave Knoxville more time to do what he's always wanted to do: act. And I was questioning how good of an actor he is before seeing this movie. To my suprise, he is quite good! I couldn't see him in a drama, but as a comic actor, I'd say he's just about as amusing as any Seann William Scott (whom is also quite the funny man).

So, if you're looking for a great, great (and entertaining) movie, I do suggest you ignore the low rating in your paper and check out "Walking Tall". And believe me, it's better than "Hellboy".

the rock

this is a true story starring the rock.he comes back from the army to a small town.its overun by a casino owner.the rock goes in and messes up the place for cheating his friend and the beat him severely and try to gut him.he barely lives.then he is tried with the assault.the jury sets him loose and he runs for and wins local sherriff.its rock vs basicly everbody else.its better than the mummy returns.its about as good as the scorpion king and not as good as rundown.

we have another Arnold clone

I cant say that i enjoyed this film, considering it was only 80 minutes long they tried to squeeze in as much action as possible but we've seen it all before,to be honest i cant believe that this turkey went to the box office and not just straight to video,i think i was conned when i paid for the ticket.The rock or Dwayne Johnson as i'm sure is what he prefers people to call him now a days could be a good actor but if he Carry's on with films like this he will be typecast forever just like Arnold or Stallone,the films direction isn't too great either,the action shots are cut much too tight and the story is as clichéd as much as you like,i found myself liking Johnny Knoxville's character better than the rocks,so in a nutshell the movie is crap,when it ends it feels like it's only just got started then an abrupt ending follows so if i were you i'd save my money on something you wont be so disappointed in.

Where you all watching a different film???

I would like to speak to the people that voted this film a ten, surely they understand nothing about A) Acting B) Dialogue C) Plot D) What makes a good film!!! This was one of the worst films I have ever seen, without a doubt, absolutely shocking! The whole idea of The Rock blatantly smashing up a casino and getting away with it because because they cut him up was ridiculous, he still did the crime for f$$K sake!! The crowning moment had to be when they threw him the piece of wood (The evidence!!!) and he went off to become sheriff (sacking all the staff) and then preceded to walk around with a piece of wood and Jonny Knoxville as his partner!! What the F**k was the director thinking??! There is only one film I have seen worse than this and that is True Friends. Both films were funny because the acting was so bad! Someone owes me money for the time I spent watching this! I even preferred Kangaroo Jack! Do yourself a favour and avoid this movie.

Why can't Hollywood let 'The Rock' be 'The Rock'?

There is a particularly disturbing scene in Barry Blaustein's brilliant wrestling documentary "Beyond the Mat", which haunted me ever since I saw the film. No, it's not the messed up personal life of Jake 'the Snake' nor is it the sight of Mick Foley's children screaming in terror as he receives repeated chair shots to the head. It was Vince McMahon expressing his interest in "making movies........." which put the chill down my spine.

Traditionally 'wrestling movies', that is wrestling themed films, have being unsuccessful at the box office and pretty terrible, the only exception being "The One and Only" which is a great film (possibly due to the fact that it's star isn't a wrestler). I'm a long time wrestling fan and can admit that 'sports entertainment' will never ever work as well in the cinema as it does in the tv soap opera format. The obvious logic therefore is to make films starring wrestlers, but not strictly on the subject of wrestling. Rowdy Roddy Piper scored the starring role in John Carpenter's "They Live", a solid cult classic by any standard, why couldn't this formula work?

Enter The Rock! The most electrifying man in sports entertainment! If any wrestler had the look and charisma to carry a feature film, it is the great one. At least in theory..............

"The Scorpion King"? That was so bad, it made "Conan the Destroyer" look like "Conan the Barbarian"! "The Rundown"? The brilliant script for that film manages some near impossible tasks, it makes Seann "Stiffler" William Scott painfully unfunny, Christopher Walken pathetic (Tooth Fairy speech!?), presents The Rock as the cliched 'hero with tragic past' type character without provide a shred of backstory (why won't he use guns?) and to top it all off in a moronic attempt to inject depth and a social conscience into the shallow garbage, it rips off a scene straight out of "Powaqqatsi"! The action scenes are rather bad (HollyWood will never EVER come close to Asian films in action, no matter how many sellout choreographers they bribe in from Hong Kong!!!) and the film runs 15 minutes too long.

So what about "Walking Tall"? Unfortunately it's just another over-hyped horrible Hollywood remake. Is that all they do? put out terrible remakes of great films, "Dawn of the Dead", "The Ring", "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Planet of the Apes" etc, etc. Haven't they already used the original "Walking Tall"? 'Hacksaw' Jim Duggan? In a recent episode of Raw, The Rock was doing Mick Foley's 'This Is Your Life' during which a "critic" told Rocky "if you'd shown this much vitality, maybe 'Walking Tall' wouldn't be a walking piece of crap!", I'm not sure why that line of dialogue was scripted, simply because it is a dead right observation! Of course this won't stop J.R.'s endless plugging, how many wrestlers have being "walking tall" on their way to the squared circle lately?

I want The Rock to succeed, sincerely want his films to be good, he's one of my favorite wrestlers along with Mysterio and Flair. The Rock on the mike is brilliant, in fact better than brilliant, he's electrifying! The Rock on talk shows is charming, funny and totally entertaining. So why is the magic missing from every film he's in?

The answer is simple, The Rock has a ton of charisma and personality, but sadly is not a highly skilled actor. Sure his promos are some of the tightest in sports entertainment, but outside The Rock persona, he doesn't have much of a range. This is in no way a mean spirited insult, just the honest truth. But many of the most respected actors play only one character repeatedly, Robert DeNiro for example. So what is wrong with letting The Rock play the Rock? Why force him into stiff uncomfortable cliched hero roles? Why not make a movie, or better yet a series of movies, in the James Bond style with The Rock as a secret agent putting the smackdown of the bad guys and getting a Bond sized share of pie along the way? A series of "Shaft" style films with The Rock jive talking the jabroni's and swinging with allot of groovy pie in the process? There is no reason why The Rock 'as is' cannot be placed in any number of films. That would be giving fans what they want, lets face it, most of the audience who went to see the films so far didn't go because the plot interested them, they went to see The Rock, I went to see The Rock.

Real wrestling fans should avoid these movies, don't give them your money because if they are successful The Rock will continue to be cast in pure crap like "Walking Tall", rather than either being forced to return to wrestling, which would not be a bad thing at all, or force producers/directors/writers to drastically increase the quality of the films, like that will ever happen.

Not worth the price of admission

whatever measly story line there is to this is centered around a couple of wild-west confrontations, which mostly consist of the Rock swinging a large piece of wood. It's so shallow that I won't even bother rehashing the premise. Suffice it to say that the Rock is one 'Walking Tall' away from the end of his movie career.If you want to see a movie starring the Rock, rent 'The Rundown', which is vastly more superior and entertaining. He simply doesn't exert enough force in this movie to carry it, and the rest of the cast are more decorative than functional. He wasn't much better in 'The Rundown', but the other key characters (Chris Walken, Rosario Dawson, Sean William Scott) provided enough finesse to counterweigh and even complement his brutish, thick-necked manner. There's simply no comparison possible that would have 'Walking Tall' holding a candle to 'The Rundown'. I think the Rock has potential, but it's clearly not evident here.

So THAT'S A Pusser Stick

After 25 years, I finally know why my dad called his favourite round twig a "Pusser stick". 'Walking Tall' is a remake of the 1973 Joe Don Baker vigilante flick about a man who was mad as hell and wasn't gonna take it no more, Jack. That man was named Buford Pusser. Now, the first mistake with the '04 version is to give the hero a different name. Chris Vaughn? Come on, I know The Rock is too cool to let anybody call him "Buford", but how do you take away the "Pusser" part? Yes, this is WWE wrestler The Rock's 3rd leading role. He's been proving to wrestling audiences for about 6 years that he is a marvelous entertainer and last year's 'The Rundown' proved he was more than just a Scorpion King. He continues to one-up the likes of early Stallone and Ah-nuld with his combination of physicality, coolness, and sense of humour. Too bad this movie starts out so well, then coasts through on violence cruise control in the second half.Returning to his small hometown after a stint in the military, Vaughn discovers that a childhood friend has turned the town into a mini-Vegas. Shades of 'Ben-Hur' abound as Neal McDonough (playing the power-hungry Jay Hamilton, Jr.) tries to get Vaughn to come aboard as his head of security at his seedy, drug-pushing casino. The hero refuses, quickly finds himself at violent odds with Hamilton, and runs for sheriff to allow the scared citizens to walk tall again. Oh, and he starts out his crusade by demolishing the casino and its security guards armed only with a 2x4, his, uh, Vaughn stick.The Rock plays the early scenes as well as Stallone did in 'First Blood', showing the quiet pain behind his eyes. These are warriors who've seen too much killing and want to fit into a normal society. But just as 'First Blood' becomes stupid and unintelligible, 'Walking Tall' doesn't trust its star to play more than one dimension...even though the opening of both films proves they can! Vaughn initially chooses the Pusser stick over a shotgun, proving that you CAN sink to violent levels without resorting to bloodbaths. But it doesn't take long before everybody is getting shot and I was checking my watch. Oops, no need for fidgeting---not even 80 minutes after the opening credits came the closing credits. How much character development was dropped to make room for all the gun-play? The cast is up to acting, but director Kevin Bray was salivating for the heavy artillery.In the very few instances the actors can relax and do something with the cookie-cutter screenplay, 'Walking Tall' has some easy banter and even a few laughs. Johnny Knoxville (as Vaughn's sidekick and eventual deputy) acquits himself far better than I would have thought possible. The Rock is due to get a good script to match his charismatic talents. Not this time, though. Oh, I gotta mention one more thing...if I'm ever on trial for assault, I want the jury that's so easily swayed by Vaughn. We may be rooting for our hero to go all vigilante on the bad guys, but this movie makes a mockery of the legal system. Oh, why do I care about common sense in an ultimately dreary action picture? The filmmakers don't.

Dissappointing

I myself have never seen the original but know the story of Sheriff Buford Pusser. This movie was good don't get me wrong, but certainly not the Rock's best work. This movie falls short of The Mummy Returns, The Scorpion King and, The Rundown, the Rock's 3 previous movies. Among action movies in general it falls short of lofty expectations. The Rock has the potential to be the next action star taking the torch from Arnold Schwarzenegger. I hope to see the Rock in better roles than this or at least with better directors who will give the Rock material better suited to his personality. 5/10*****The Rock will certainly get his actor's wings in the future and will gain the ability to broaden his repotoire and tackle other realms of entertainment.

Too Short For Impact- May contain possible SPOILERS

Even though there are no major twists reading this may come as a spoiler to some of you ! so you have been warned.To tell you the truth, I went to see this movie for "The Rock", if you too are going to see it for the "The Rock", then you will be satisfied.Having said that, one does wonder why the director was so in such a hurry to end the movie, it required a little more conflict with villains,drama (not action sequences, there are enough of those) but instead showing how the rock got elected to become the sheriff,some more character development on the father son relationship ,rock's stint as sheriff could have shown more bad guys going down, some moves and counter moves from the bad guys, Etc etc would have been nice, but as this is a simple action movie and no thriller or suspense, lets not expect a expert narration.The plot of the movie is simple, Rock is Ex-army and comes home to find corruption, drugs, prostitution etc. He decides that its enough and simply takes control himself, kicks ass and conquers evil that too in only 82 minutes.When the rock becomes the sheriff the movie does seem promising but the speed at which rock vanquishes all evil is simply amazing, and a little unbelievable, bringing us to the ending extremely fast.So overall if u liked the rock's previous movies then go and see this one also, Do not expect a James Cameron, John Woo action flick and you will come out a happy!! and walking tall.

This movie deserves to Walk Tall

The movie is based on actual events and I have to say was pretty good. Yeah I know most actual event movies are boring and stuff but this one was pretty fast paced... actually seemed to fast. Its funny cause The DVD says runtime of 1 Hour and 26 minutes, I think that its only that when you add the end credits which is about 14 minutes (no joke, movie was over with at 1 hour and 12 minutes and the credits were going until 1 hour and 26 minutes and whatever seconds). Besides that the movie is full of action and has that comedy appeal as well. The basics are a military guy (The Rock) comes back to his hometown after 8 years to try and get work at the local mill which was the main industry when he left. He comes back to find it closed and goes to see his parents home. He learns that the main industry now is a casino owned by his one time friend, but trouble starts when Rock finds out that the casino is crooked and so is the people who protect it. I don't want to give away too much details since you'd rather see it then read about it in a review. Its definately one not to miss. Enjoy.

save yourself the pain

Ouch, saw this movie because of the Rock and ended up feeling sorry for all of the actors in it. Script was horrible and most of the action sequences are shot w/ a handheld -- a shaking camera plus a lot of movement equals very blurry screen. Afterward I really wanted my money and time back.