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Walking Tall (2004)

Director: Kevin Bray

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From Time Out London

The best thing to be said about this kind of perniciously violent sub-‘Rambo’ Hollywood macho action bullshit is that at least it leaves your mind free to contemplate higher thoughts. Such as: do all Army vets wax their chests as diligently as Chris Vaughn (The Rock)? Why don’t bad guys bleed after being mashed about the head with a two-by-four? And shouldn’t more A-listers follow The Rock’s lead and boil down their name to reflect their salient points (Hugh Grant, Adam Sandler and Tom Cruise as The Brit, The Shit and The Squit for starters)?
Of course, you could also explore the political parallels of a plot in which a dumbass thug sheriff (The Rock) unilaterally decides to clean up a town on the skids by beating the crappola out of perceived foes because he a) thinks they might be bad; b) just plain doesn’t like them. However, nothing screams ‘smartass’ more than foggy metaphors drawn from ropey action flicks, so best settle back with your popcorn and be grateful that the whole damn farrago will be over about 85 minutes after it begins. You don’t get much bang for your buck these days, do you?

Author: PW

Time Out London Issue 1768: July 7-14, 2004


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