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‘12 Rounds’ spars with mediocrity
Movie Review: 12 Rounds
By Patrick Rills
Special to 2theadvocate.com
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PLAY OFFICIAL TRAILER
out of 4 stars.
Since the popularity of wrestling exploded in the 1980s, we’ve seen several very well-known wrestlers make the transition from the ring to the screen. Who can forget such memorable performances as Hulk Hogan in “Mr. Nanny” or Bill Goldberg in “Universal Soldier: The Return?”
Well, mostly everyone it seems.
This week, World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) John Cena once again tosses his hat into this ring of trite performances with his newest film, “12 Rounds.”
Cena plays Det. Danny Fisher, a New Orleans cop whose girlfriend (Ashley Scott) is kidnapped by Miles Jackson (Aidan Gillen), a terrorist, arms dealer and thief. The kidnapping serves as revenge for the accidental death of Jackson’s girlfriend, who died when Fisher thwarted Jackson’s heist a year earlier. Jackson, who is played quite unconvincingly by Gillen, demands that Fisher complete 12 “rounds” of well-orchestrated and time-constrained challenges around the city in order to get his girlfriend back alive.
“12 Rounds” isn’t as terrible as other wrestler-oriented films. Its adrenaline-pumping action premise plays well to Cena’s strengths as an actor (looking buff and performing stunts) -- as long as there’s very little dialogue involved.
It would be easy to assume that the transition from wrestling to acting would be more seamless, since professional wrestling is nothing more than vaudeville with blood and spandex. However, with the borderline exception of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, it seems former wrestlers don’t, won’t or can’t put the same determination and work ethic behind acting as they do bodybuilding.
But if there’s anything I’ve learned from Mickey Rourke in the past year, it’s that wrestlers can’t wrestle forever. You can’t blame Cena for wanting to build a career outside the brutal injury-fest of wrestling.
The film is produced by WWE and plays out much like one of their wrestling matches, except turnbuckles and aluminum chairs are replaced with guns and C4. There is a clear hero and villain who deliver over-the-top monologues about how they are going to injure each another and how said injuries will satisfy their respective quests for revenge.
Also, like a wrestling match, it is highly energetic, action-packed and melodramatic. Cena’s hero is placed in some rather unique and suspenseful situations in the familiar surroundings of downtown New Orleans. The film’s device of having the character successfully overcome challenges with last-minute heroics even when he is on the ropes (pun intended) will be a familiar entertainment experience to fans of WWE.
Although above average for an action film, “12 Rounds” is difficult to recommend because of its horrible dialogue, poor performances (except for the disgruntled FBI agent played by former “The Practice” star Steve Harris), and derivative plot that too closely resembles 1995’s “Die Hard: With a Vengeance.” In fact, audiences would probably be better off watching the version with Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, or Jeremy Irons than this mediocre imitation.
