The Rundown (2003)
★★½ — The Rundown (2003)
The Rundown is the definition of fine, and I mean that almost fondly. Not good, not bad, fine, because there is a real, underrated skill in being this watchable while leaving absolutely nothing behind. It is a Dwayne Johnson action vehicle from the era when he was still working out that a smirk and a shoulder-fired weapon will carry you a very long way, and taken purely on those terms, it does the job it sets out to do without fuss or shame.
He plays Beck, a recovery man, a debt-collector with muscles, sent into the Amazon to haul a mobster's wayward son back home. Naturally he ends up tangled in a gold-rush war between exploited miners and the thug who runs the town. It is the oldest fish-out-of-water setup going, jungle vines and ancient temples and The Rock throwing haymakers between one-liners, and there is a small, likeable gimmick in Beck's reluctance to use guns, which gives the fights a scrappy, bone-crunching physicality the film otherwise would not have earned. He would rather not shoot anyone. The film obliges by letting him throw them through scenery instead.
What lifts it, in flashes, is the company he keeps. Seann William Scott is genuinely funny as the motormouth treasure-hunting son, and the buddy chemistry between the two of them keeps threatening to turn this into a better, warmer film than it actually is. Peter Berg directs with real energy, there is a kinetic snap to the set pieces, one early jungle brawl in particular has a proper sense of two big men hurting each other, and the South American setting lends it a welcome whiff of old-fashioned adventure. You can feel it reaching for the Romancing the Stone meets Commando romp it wants to be.
It just never quite gets there, and the reasons are always the same. The story is thin to the point of transparency. Christopher Walken turns up as the villain and does his rambling, off-kilter Walken thing, but the film gives him nothing sharp to do, so he ends up cartoonish without being memorable, a strange waste of a strange man. And too much of the run time is filler, connective tissue stretched thin between the fights, marking time until the next punch-up. You have seen every beat of this before, usually done with more wit or more weight or more stakes.
So, decently entertaining, competently made, and almost entirely forgettable by the time the credits roll. It is not a bad film, and for fans of The Rock's early run it sits comfortably alongside the likes of Walking Tall as a pleasant enough couple of hours. But it is a middle-of-the-road action flick with a few good moments and a lot of seen-it-before, and I cannot in honesty pretend otherwise. Two and a half stars. Passable, not essential, which is about the kindest accurate thing you can say about it.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2003 | Watched: 2025-10-24
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Rent: Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Sky Store · YouTube
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Philo · Starz Amazon Channel · Starz · Starz Apple TV channel
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Peter Berg: Lone Survivor (2013) · Hancock (2008)
More with Dwayne Johnson: Walking Tall (2004) · Moana 2 (2024) · Moana (2016)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More adventure: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · The Eagle (1925) · Louisiana Story (1948) · The General (1926)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
