Con la frente en alto

Walking Tall is a decent remake with some flaws from director Ken Bray whose admirable in making this movie but a short running time, some over the top action, and the lack of a more central villain is what weighed it down. Walking Tall however isn't that bad and it's one of the better remakes out there. Dwayne Johnson is solid as the lead and proves to be a talented actor while bringing some of his wresting experience to the movie during the action/fight sequences. Johnson turns in a good performance of a man who returns home to find it overrun by crime and corruption, which drives him to become sheriff in order to put an end to it. The rest of the cast including Johnny Knoxville, Neal McDonough, and Ashley Scott are okay in their roles but (except for maybe Knoxville) they're not given much to do. The movie felt short and rushed with an 86 minute running time. Some of the fight sequences especially the one near the end between Johnson and McDonough go over the top. Johnson's performance however and the action sequences make this movie worth seeing at least once. Overall despite its flaws Walking Tall is decent remake one of the better ones with intense action, fist fights, some humor, and good performances by the cast.

The Rock takes a page out of the Chuck Norris bible in his rendition of a special forces soldier returning to his home town. He quickly learns things in his hometown are not as he had left them and not for the better. Soon, things come to a head and he has to make a choice as to whether he is going to put up with it, or Walk Tall.

As The Rock himself mentioned- the original Sheriff Buford was a white man in his 40's so remember this is an adaptation of a 1970's movie script that was originally "based" on a true story, so we are a pretty long ways out from accurately representing the original events- this is only representing the SPIRIT of the original true story.

Fabulous fight scenes, a tense script and some funny moments all are reminiscent of the numerous Chuck Norris movies that portrayed a quiet guy that doesn't take any bull-crap from nobody man!

While the script made perfect sense in an earlier time - the Viet Nam era, it doesn't quite fly 100% in this day and age. So suspend a little belief.You may findyourself scratching your head as to how that could happen in this day and age.. well.. it could back then - even though it didn't really haha. However, no mention is made of the actual time period they are trying to represent- yet they mention current items like home depot and cops TV show. The moonshine whiskey sheriff buford fought is updated in this script to be crystal meth/ice.

The acting is surprisingly good for the Rock and he is looking manly in this movie instead of the sculpted eyebrow weirdo looks he has achieved in the past. Instead of looking like a dancer in a gay club like he did in Scorpion King, he looks the rough and tumble part for this role.

His attachment to his family is acted in a clumsy and weak manner but that isn't really important to the script- even if he only sort of likes his family he would still protect them with his life so it still works for the momentum of the movie.

Johnny Knoxville is mainly weak but has some great shining moments where they allow him to be Johnny Knoxville instead of the stupid 1-d concept of his character that seems to be forced on him through the other parts of the flick. At times he is reminiscent of Barney Fife to Rock's Andy. :-)

If you want to READ about the real man that INSPIRED this really great story- http://www.sheriffbufordpusser.com/history1.htm (the welcome page has a picture of him)

The Rock is the next great action hero. He has all the requisites. He is handsome, an amazing athlete with an awesome physique, charismatic, intelligent, and funny. His star power carries Kevin Bray's "Walking Tall".

The Rock is great in an entertaining movie. "Walking Tall" though great fun to watch, and capably produced and directed also punctuates that The Rock needs to work on more edgy and quality projects. He is definitely a movie star, who can become a solid actor.

"Walking Tall" has to overcome a very convoluted writing credit. This is not a retelling of the Bufford Pussor story, although its original screen writer, Mort Bristein, is acknowledged. This "Walking Tall" by David Klass, Channing Gibson, David Levien, and Brian Koppelman tells the story of returning Special Forces war hero Chris Vaughn (The Rock), who comes home to a small town outside Seattle. The town mill has been closed down, and his old high school bud, Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough), owns the new town casino and pretty much owns the local police too. Jay is not the man he remembered from his youth. Chris is forced to raise his hand reluctantly against Hamilton's men. They leave him for dead, and fortunately Chris survives. So Chris is out to right an injustice, and exact revenge with extreme prejudice. This "Walking Tall" resembles "First Blood" particularly in it's local and plot setting.

Props to Director Kevin Bray for delivering on the story line as Chris exacts his revenge. Bray has a clean and lean style. The action sequences are crisp and dramatic. The Rock truly excels in the fight sequences. For one thing he is an big strong guy, and when he is laying "the smack down" on the villains it is believable and thoroughly enjoyable. The bad guys truly get what they deserve.

The supporting cast is solid. Ashley Scott (almost unrecognizable from the short-lived "Birds of Prey") is good as the stripper with a big heart who is Chris's love interest. Johnny Knoxville (of "Jackass") is funny and charming as Chris's bud and deputy Ray.

I completely enjoyed "Walking Tall". It is a brisk 75 minutes of cool action, and has the star power of The Rock. I look forward to seeing more movies starring The Rock.

I hate wrestling, but when I saw "The Rundown" last year I had to admit, The Rock is one cool guy, and a perfect action star. He's big and tough, but most importantly he's charismatic and has a sense of humor and a certain softness that actually makes him seem somewhat vulnerable. This is what sets him apart from someone like Vin Diesel, who was all set to be the next big action star but never was because he has no personality or sense of humor.

"Walking Tall" is a remake of a 1973 based-on-fact film about a man who fights back against corruption in his town by becoming sheriff and waging war on the bad guys. I haven't seen the original, but I'm willing to bet it's closer to the truth than the 2004 "Walking Tall", which is packed with more machine guns, axes, exploding trucks, and gunfighting strippers than anything that's "based on fact" could possibly be.

Here, Vaughn returns home after years of being away to find his hometown in shambles and dependent on a corrupt casino run by drug-dealing, knife-wielding thugs. After he receives a brutal beating and his nephew (Khleo Thomas, from "Holes") nearly overdoses on crystal meth bought there, the war is on. My inner 12 year-old says "Woohoo!".

Yes, this film is ridiculously over the top. It's also completely predictable. But it's FUN. A lot of fun, in fact. It's extremely fast paced, well-acted, the action scenes are excellent, and at just under 80 minutes, it's exceptionally lean too. Not one unnecessary or drawn-out scene.

"Walking Tall" doesn't aim to be anything except old-fashioned popcorn entertainment, and it succeeds, yet it has been made with surprising artistry as well. The cinematography is very good, and there are some interesting things done with sound and unexpected fade-outs. Also, Vaughn is an interestingly complex hero (complex as far as these movie go, anyway). At one point, when he clearly wants to bring a loaded shotgun into a fight with him, he hesitates, and brings a less-deadly 2x4 instead. It's a neat moment.

So it's not going to be winning any awards any time soon. But I had a really good time, plain and simple, and the audience I saw it with did too.

After having found Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's last film, The Rundown, a very enjoyable action outing, I was hoping for big things from The Rock. When I discovered his next film was this remake of the 1973 version of Walking Tall I was hoping for great things. The week before the premiere my enthusiasm was tempered by three huge things the film had working against it.

The first disappointment was in discovering it was to be an MGM release. From the studio that once boasted "more stars than there are in heaven" it can now be referred to the studio that makes it as cheap as possible, then throws it on the big screen for a few weeks, and finishes it off by rushing the DVD out to market. As a profitability concept, I can't argue whether the strategy is working or not, but having seen many of their recent films I can say it fails as far as any kind of cinematic achievements are concerned. Oh sure, once in a while they get lucky with one and it's half way decent, but it's not because of any real concern for quality.

The second slap in the face was to discover the running time was a little over an hour and fifteen minutes. Considering that the original Walking Tall with Joe Don Baker ran for over two hours, this was definitely not a good sign. Add to that the fact that I had once seen the running time of the remake listed as one hour and forty minutes, one could only guess as to what footage was now cluttering the cutting room floor.

Then the coup de grace was after reading some of the IMDB comments before leaving for the theater, we find that Vince McMahon, the guy who gave us Wrestling and even worst, the XFL, has his hand in this film some where. Things were not looking good this morning but my mind was made up and I was going to go. So, were my early hopes realized, or did my worst nightmare come true? The answer is somewhere in between.

Whereas the first Walking Tall film was a fictionalized account of Sheriff Buford Pusser of McNairy County in Tennessee, the writers, producers and director of this remake decided it wasn't fictionalized enough. Not only does it no longer take place in Tennessee, it now takes place in Washington. Our hero is no longer Buford Pusser the ex-wrestler he is now Chris Vaughn, ex U.S. Special Forces Sergeant. I guess it wouldn't have looked good to have The Rock talking negatively about wrestling the way Joe Don Baker badmouthed it in the original. Especially since Vince McMahon is a producer. Chris, unlike Buford who had a wife and two kids, is single. But he does have an ex-girlfriend lurking about somewhere. The reason I relate this information to you is because a lot of the original film depended on Buford's home life. In this version it is only slightly needed, which would partially explain the short running time. It also makes this remake a film that lacks the ability to involve us in it's storyline like we should be.

Walking Tall actually does start off well and is relatively faithful to the original. Upon returning home, Buford...err I mean Chris, returns home to find that the Lumber Mill that supported his home town has closed placing his father, Chris Sr. (John Beasley)out of work. Also living at home are his mother, his paramedic sister, and his nephew. Unfortunately, unlike the original film, his family is here for the purpose of supplying a few plot devices that develop later in the film and nothing more.

What is new in town is a corrupt casino, built by the an old buddy,(Neal Mcdonough), who closed the mill putting everybody out of work. On a visit there with his friend Ray (Johnny Knoxville), Chris finds some crooked dice at a crap game. After fighting with the casino's security force, he is subdued, viciously cut and left for dead. Later when Chris's nephew overdoses on drugs (ahh! the plot device I mentioned) supplied by the same people who knifed him, Chris decides to seek revenge. It is at this moment that the film begins to loose it's grip by degenerating into a series of poorly staged fights and even worse shoot 'em ups.

Portions of the film are entertaining, in large part due to the on screen natural charisma that The Rock has. Just as in The Rundown, the role of action hero seems to come naturally to him, and as far as acting ability is concerned, after only three leading roles he is already ahead of Schwarzenegger's capabilities after the same number of films. An even bigger surprise was Johnny Knoxville as his best friend Ray. He has some of the best written lines in the film, and seems to have just the right screen persona for his role. The rest of the cast is basically generic. Neal McDonough's villainous Jay, talks more threatening than he appears and that's a major problem. In the original film, the threat of danger always seemed imminent and except for Chris's initial fight, we never believe he or anyone else is in any real danger. Even a tussle between Ray and some guys holding Rock's family hostage is played partially for laughs, which also indicates how badly the film slips into being just another cardboard action film.

Another gripe I have though, is obviously there are chunks of this film that are missing. I don't know whether it was a studio decision, a McMahon decision, or a decision by director Bray, to cut the film, but the decision was a bad one. At times the film loses what little cohesiveness it has by leaving some scenes unfinished, and jumping inexplicably to others. Go figure.

I suppose there's nothing totally bad about being a formulaic action film, except there is no reason why this film couldn't have been and shouldn't have been so much more. If it had been developed into the same kind of engrossing story that the original was, it wouldn't matter how much they changed it. It was a golden opportunity for The Rock to really shine and strut his stuff, but it is an opportunity now lost. If memory serves me correctly, the original Walking Tall was blasted mercilessly and I think unfairly by some critics. Audiences didn't care though and they flocked to it. This remake has also been blasted by some critics and I won't disagree with them. Unfortunately for The Rock, I don't think the audiences are going to stand in line for this one.

If you want to see more about the original Walking Tall film you must do two things. First, forget that you ever saw Joe Don Baker in Mitchell, and second, get the DVD that is readily available. That's my recommendation, and when I have to recommend another film to people, I have no choice but to give the remake my grade which is a more than generous C-