12 trampas

If you shuffled together the scripts for Speed and Die Hard 3, and split it in two you'd have Daniel Kunka's script for 12 Rounds. The similarities are striking, and too numerous to list. But as a crash-and-burn action film it is very entertaining, has many exiting scenes, and features a charismatic villain. Unfortunately, John Cena, as the troubled hero, is about as emotive as a draft excluder (one of those long, stuffed snakes...remember those?). Cena is likable, but he's very, very, very far from being an accomplished actor.

One year after busting an international terrorist, New Orleans cop Danny Fisher is thrown into an impossible gauntlet when the criminal breaks out of jail. He must survive twelve rounds of increasingly difficult challenges in order to save his kidnapped girlfriend. The crook himself is Miles Jackson (played nicely by Aidan Gillen), a criminal mastermind who plays the deadly game fast and loose. As I said, he's a great villain, and one that you might partially side with after the accidental death of his girlfriend during the opening.

Renny Harlin has been slumming it for a while now. Ever since Cutthroat Island tanked he's had a hard time keeping his career afloat. When one watches all of his movies from different eras it becomes clear that the man has no style of his own and simply emulates whatever the current trend happens to be. His effort in 12 rounds is merely a pastiche of all the usual CSI/Michael Bay moves. The camera never sits still, regardless of whether or not it's appropriate to the scene. Trevor Rabin provides a rather generic score, but has a couple of nice, repeating themes that bring more emotion to the scenes than Cena is able to show.

12 Rounds will never win awards or even earn itself any particular distinction among action movies, but when you're having this much fun, who cares?

John Cena, who should stick to the wrestling ring, does in 12 ROUNDS what boils down to a reprise of his character from THE MARINE. The plot is also the same, which has Cena once again chasing after his kidnapped wife. The actress playing the wife even looks like the wife from THE MARINE. The only difference is this time, Cena must match wits with an IRA type who puts Cena through a series of improbable tasks to save her. The film is of the shaky camera and CGI variety, and it frankly isn't as heart-pounding as THE MARINE. This is partly because we've seen it all before, and because the tasks Cena must undertake are completely unbelievable. Plus the acting is sub par. The flick also is highly derivative of past flicks like DIE HARD, PHONE BOOTH, DIRTY HARRY, CELL PHONE and LETHAL WEAPON, among others.

Renny Harlin has been relatively quiet these days, but I won't be shy in stating for a fact that I had enjoyed some of his action movies in the past, with the likes of Die Hard 2 (despite all the loopholes), Cliffhanger with Stallone, Driven (also starring Sly) and The Long Kiss Goodnight even. Despite being better known for duds starting with Cutthroat Island, Mindhunters and even The Covenant which turned out to be a comedy, 12 Rounds turned out to be better than expected, also because John Cena looked the classic action hero that Hollywood so sorely misses.

No, I'm not a WWE John Cena wrestling fan, because my interest in WWE was left back when it was known as WWF, and like The Rock (now wanting to be known simply as Dwayne Johnson), Cena follows in his footsteps in making that leap to the big screen. While his first outing as The Marine was pretty much straight to DVD fare, this one was designed for the big screen with its big set action pieces befittingly challenging the big man, and having an old hand of action at the helm helped to bring out some enjoyable moments despite clichés abound.

As the trailer would already have suggested, Danny Fisher (Cena) is a beat cop who gets in the way of a heist by international arms trader Miles Jackson (Aiden Gillen who was just a mile wide of being a memorable psychopathic villain), and in his pursuit causes the latter's main squeeze to die in a traffic accident. Ridden with rage, Miles remembers his pursuer so that he can exact revenge when he breaks out of prison. Only that he harbours some diabolical plot to play with his prey, hence the kidnapping of Danny's girlfriend Molly (Ashley Scott) and the devising of 12 rounds of city-wide games with the overcoming of each round leading Danny closer to his girl.

So begins a running around New Orleans to perform the usual one-man cop stunts that calls for everything from intellect to brute force. It could easily fit into the Die Hard franchise, or Speed for that matter as one sequence in a bus would have me reminisce. In shows like these, things do get a tad convenient, and though I tried to examine just a little bit more into it, the plot still made some sense and held some water. In some moments it seemed like it's paying its own tribute to the emergency services of New Orleans post-Katrina, with the police, fire and medical departments featured prominently as occupations of choice of its characters.

12 Rounds is rip-roaring fun. As an action film, it has enough thrills and spills if you'd just park aside believability for a minute, and bask in the possibility of one man saving the world only because it got personal stakes involved, coming complete with obnoxious FBI agents who think they know the world. Sprinkled with some light touches of humour, the body count here is surprisingly low, which in some way gave a breathe of fresh air instead of subscribing to the mantra that the more gruesome or gritty, the better.

But if there are qualms, it's directed more at the technical areas, like the lapsing into the shaky cam, where I had thought to roll my eyes and exclaim that Renny should have bought a bloody tripod for his DOP. Also, the editing probably needed to rethink his quick cuts in the final action sequence in closed quarters, as well as some cheesy lines where it's not warranted (I swear if I hear one more "wrong place, wrong time" comment...)

However if you go at this with expectations set low, you might just come out with a grin at the end of it. I'll be anticipating more John Cena movies to come, and will probably go dig at his older film as well, but here's hoping that he doesn't go the way that most action stars do - easy come and easy go - that he gets some longevity at the box office, before being unceremoniously pushed aside (if it does happen, like Seagal's career) to the straight to video shelves.

If you can just avoid asking "how?" you might enjoy this film as an exciting collection of action scenes. The villain does bad things, and the hero John Cena manages to save the day (as expected). Reality and logic are overlooked when they are in conflict with a good action scene. The fact that the action in this film could never, never ever happen is beside the point.

Very little time is spent on character development, since all you need to know is who the villain is. You find this out within a minute or two, and you can then switch off your brain for the rest of the film.

This film is immune to criticism. John Cena does not have any big acting scenes, and might even be capable of passable acting. However, he's not called upon to do much acting. His execution of the stunts and action scenes is amazing.

How can anyone complain about an illogical plot when the film was produced by the WWE and stars a professional wrestler? The movie was filmed entirely in New Orleans,and makes terrific use of dozens of locations. I probably gave it an extra point or two for this.

The scene with the "runaway streetcar" has got to be an in-joke, because the "real" Canal Street streetcar cannot travel more than a half-block at a time at a very, very slow pace. It is frequently blocked by vehicles stopped across its tracks. The havoc (if not revenge) wreaked on vehicular traffic by this runaway streetcar has got to bring delight to any local streetcar rider.

Yes, I saw this movie. Why? Because it was free. No one expects this to be a groundbreaking action movie that changes the face of the genre. I didn't even expect it to be a decent ripoff. But hey, I had a good time watching this one...it's not going to go down as epic or anything, but it's certainly not the worst product featuring a wrestler in a starring role (Doom, anyone?). This is all well and good, but they should change the title of this film to '12 Rounds of Insanity', because there's no way any of this movie is possible.

That's where the chuckles will begin. The premise of this movie, pretty much 'Saw' crossed with 'Speed', is rather clever - it's the one reason I didn't hate the movie - however, this doesn't change the fact that this is one of the most ridiculous and insane movies of recent memory. I don't mean insane like...cool insane. I mean insane as in that only an insane person could see the events of the film as realistic.

Is Renny Harlin still capable of directing decent action? Sure, as '12 Rounds' doesn't do a bad job supplying some quality stunts and explosions, which, let's face it - is all the audience really wants from this movie. 'Die Hard 2' was a worthy entry in that series (though it may be the most forgettable), but hey, Harlin does pack the movie with enough action and thrills to make it at least somewhat entertaining.

John Cena, as we know, is not an actor...I do not expect him to deliver award worthy work, therefore he does not disappoint. He does have an air of likability about him, but he doesn't have the same level of charisma as most other action stars nowadays. I don't even think he smiles in this movie. Again, is Harlin known for getting great performances? No, so you shouldn't expect anything more. What's kind of sad is that the actors in the movie, the people who actually have that as their first profession, are nothing short of laughable. Ashley Scott in particular was disappointing because of her lack of emotion. Aidan Gillen is a passable villain (though he couldn't have been cheesier if he tried), and is also the character hurt most by the ridiculous events in the script. Brian White as Cena's partner was probably my favorite character and performance in the film.

In short, '12 Rounds' is not a movie that should be taken overly serious. It aims for an audience who expects cool explosions, a fast talking villain, and a ton of action. In that respect, this movie is alright. It's also the first action movie this year that the kids (around 9 or 10 and up) should be okay in, as there's very little language and no sex at all. If you go in with low to modest expectations (or are in the mood for exactly what it promises), '12 Rounds' might just be a decent movie.