Walking Tall (2004)
Director: Kevin Bray
Movie review
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
Cast & crew
Director: Kevin Bray
Producer: Ashok Amritraj, David Hoberman, Jim Burke, Lucas Foster, Paul Schiff
Cast: The Rock, Neal McDonough, Johnny Knoxville, Kristen Wilson, Khleo Thomas, Ashley Scott full cast
Genre(s): Action/Adventure, Thrillers, Drama
Rated: 15
Duration: 84 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Ang Lee talks 'Taking Woodstock'
Ang Lee talks to Tom Huddleston about his tale of the men behind history’s greatest music festival
Hippies who work for The Man
To celebrate George Clooney comedy 'The Men who Stare at Goats', we look back at six memorable onscreen hippies who fought the system from within
Roland Emmerich's guide to disaster movies
Ahead of the release of '2012', Roland Emmerich offers his ten tips on creating the perfect global catastrophe
Grant Heslov: interview
Grant Heslov, director of 'The Men who Stare at Goats' talks about his old pal George Clooney, his interest in the paranormal, and his fond memories of working on 'Happy Days'
The Coen brothers discuss 'A Serious Man'
Masters of contrary comedy, Joel and Ethan Coen have struck gold again with their latest, ‘A Serious Man’
Ten inspirations behind 'Avatar'?
Time Out ponders the influences behind James Cameron's anticipated space-opera on the basis of the trailer
Michael Haneke: The man behind the menace
From Cannes to Munich to London, Dave Calhoun tours Michael Haneke's Palme d'Or winner, 'The White Ribbon'
How Jane Campion brought John Keats back to life
Time Out gets Romantic with the ‘difficult’ New Zealander about her new film, 'Bright Star'
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations











What do you think?
Post your review now