Despite being a fan of Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, I've only just got round to watching 2004's 'Walking Tall' - an (apparently!) 'true' story about a soldier returning to his home time to find that pretty much everything centres around a corrupt casino. Now, it's up to him to take it on and take it down.
The film surprised me on a fair few levels, but most of those are based on how I now see Dwayne Johnson and the typical type of film he now stars in. Back in 2004 he wasn't quite the Box Office powerhouse he is today, therefore 'Walking Tall' was almost more 'low budget' than I ever imagined I'd see him in. Now, that's no bad thing. You don't need mega-budget and tonnes of computer-generated special effects to make a good film. You just need to tell a compelling story. And, to be fair, 'Walking Tall' was a simple and effective tale.First of all, it's pretty short - weighing in at well under the typical hour and a half. Therefore it does cram quite a lot of story into a short space of time. This means that it's never dull, but sometimes the plot does just seem to gloss over major plot points and jump from major factor to the next in - literally - a single scene. For example, a court case happens almost within days of the (alleged) 'criminal' act it resides over. Don't crimes usually take months (or even years?) to come to trial normally?
However, that's just a minor gripe. I don't know much about the 'real' events it was based on, so I don't know how exact anything really plays out, but it is certainly an interesting piece as it begins to show Dwayne Johnson's natural charm and screen presence. He's not quite ready to take over the entire Box Office, but, if you look closely, you can see that it's going to happen pretty soon.
Plus fair play to making a piece of wood feel like one of the cast! I'd like to see the plank of wood go on to bigger and better things - just like the man who wielded it!
7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that
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