#95: Walking Tall
Release Date: April 2nd, 2004
Format: Cable (Bounce)
Written by: Channing Gibson, David Klass, Brian Koppelman, David Levien
Directed by: Kevin Bray
2 Stars
Let me first say that Walking Tall is a perfect lazy cable movie. You can shut your brain off for 90 minutes and let it wash over you. But as I was watching, I was more interested in its place in cinema history than I was in the actual movie itself, which is a generic vigilante movie (and a remake of a better reviewed original from 1973).
Some thoughts that I had watching it:
This was towards the beginning of an accelerated trend of Hollywood mining any intellectual property (IPs) they could for a quick buck. This could be board games (Battleship), toys (Transformers), or knocking the dust off of shows and movies from the ‘70s. I was working at the video store in this era, and it was astonishing how many IPs from the ‘70s were re-visioned in the early ‘00s and thrown out onto the booming DVD market. Just from memory: Superman Returns, Dukes of Hazzard, The Longest Yard, Starsky and Hutch, Death Race, Rocky Balboa, The Hills Have Eyes, The Amityville Horror, Stray Dogs, and Walking Tall (and I’m sure I’m forgetting many more).
2004 might as well be 1994. Walking Tall looks older than it is and dated. The jeans and shirts are hilarious in this thing. The love interest in the movie is given Britney Spears exact fit from that year. If you’re a millennial, there is plenty of stuff in this decidedly mediocre movie to still entertain you.
But the most interesting thing about Walking Tall is The Rock, who was still billed as “The Rock.” Here he is trying to find his movie voice, his cinematic presence, and he might have been on to something. I think he works well as a modest, charming, protector of the people-type. He does elevate the material here just a tad because he is so effortlessly congenial, while still being physically imposing. His character, Chris Vaughn, is a mix of both Stallone and Schwarzenegger, with Stallone’s under-doggedness and Schwarzenegger’s charisma.
Which brings me to the thing that bothered me most while watching Walking Tall. The Rock, the actual performer, is nothing like Stallone or Arnold. Unlike Stallone, he’s not a true artist. I know that sounds silly, but Sly made a path for himself by writing Rocky and writing Rambo. He also directed a bunch of those films. He had a clear vision for who he was as a performer and what his persona should be. And unlike Arnold, The Rock doesn’t take risks on challenging material. Imagine the balls Arnold had to take on scripts like Total Recall and the first two Terminator movies. Those are bizarre movies for a burgeoning A-list action star to take on, but Arnold seems to know that his sheer charisma could carry them.
The Rock seems to only make movies for dumb people. Maybe that’s too harsh. Let’s say he only makes movies for people who don’t like movies. His movies remind me of a family of 10 who are together for the holidays, and they all decide to go to a movie, and they’re trying to pick a movie that appeases the wife/mom who hasn’t been to the theater in two years, her 7-year-old and 12-year-old kids, the grandparents who can’t see too well anymore, and a couple shithead cousins who will try and discreetly watch TikToks the whole time. Might as well take the whole dumb crew to Jungle Cruise. Or Rampage. Or Skyscraper.
It’s really one of the worst filmographies ever for an A-list actor. And it’s especially disappointing because The Rock is talented. You can see little glimpses of it in Walking Tall. But for the last twenty years he seems to be solely focused on chasing big paychecks and selling out billboards and bus advertisements.
