#95: Walking Tall (2004)
Release Date: April 2nd, 2004
Format: Cable (Bounce)
Written by: Channing Gibson, David Klass, Brian Koppelman, David Levien
Directed by: Kevin Bray
2 Stars
Let me first say that Walking Tall is a perfect lazy cable movie. You can shut your brain off for 90 minutes and let it wash over you. But as I was watching, I was more interested in its place in cinema history than I was in the actual movie itself, which is mostly just a toothless remake of the better original from 1973.
Some thoughts that I had watching it:
This was towards the beginning of the accelerated trend of 2000s Hollywood mining any intellectual property (IPs) they could for a quick buck. This could be board games (Battleship), toys (Transformers), or knocking the dust off of shows and movies from the ‘70s. I was working at the video store in this era, and it was astonishing how many IPs from the ‘70s were re-visioned in the early ‘00s and thrown out onto the booming DVD market. Just from memory: Superman Returns, Dukes of Hazzard, The Longest Yard, Starsky and Hutch, Death Race, Rocky Balboa, The Hills Have Eyes, The Amityville Horror, Stray Dogs, and Walking Tall (and I’m sure I’m forgetting many more).
2004 might as well be 1994. Walking Tall looks older than it is and dated. The jeans and shirts are hilarious in this thing. The love interest in the movie is given Britney Spears’ exact fit from that year. If you’re a millennial, there is plenty of stuff in this decidedly mediocre movie to still entertain you.
But the most interesting thing about Walking Tall is The Rock, who was still billed as “The Rock.” Here he is still trying to find his movie voice, his cinematic presence. I think he works well in Walking Tall as a modest, charming, protector of the people-type. He does elevate the material a bit.
But what a disappointing filmography he would go on to create.
He can’t write or direct like Stallone, so he lacks the ability to author his own on-screen persona. He literally can’t manifest his Rocky or his First Blood (#113). And although he has a charisma and a presence similar to Schwarzenegger, he has no taste or courage for challenging scripts. You can’t imagine a scenario where The Rock would have taken on a Terminator or a Total Recall.
The Rock seems to only make movies for dumb people. Maybe that’s too harsh. Let’s say he only makes movies for people who don’t like movies. His movies are for that family of 10 who are together for the holidays, and they all decide to go to a movie, and they’re trying to pick a movie that appeases the wife/mom who hasn’t been to the theater in two years, her dumb husband, her 7-year-old and 12-year-old kids, the grandparents who can’t see too well anymore, and a couple shithead cousins who will watch TikToks in the theater the whole time. Might as well take the whole crew to Jungle Cruise. Or Rampage. Or Skyscraper.
It’s really one of the worst filmographies ever for an A-list actor. And it’s especially disappointing because The Rock is talented. You can see little glimpses of it in Walking Tall. But for the last twenty years he seems to be solely focused on chasing big paychecks and selling out billboards and bus advertisements. He’s more brand than man.
