Berg's skill with actors is questionable, which is strange given that he's an actor himself. He seems to have encouraged Scott to be a hairier version of his "American Pie" self, disrupting the film wherever possible to taunt The Rock and to tease the actors playing the Amazonian rebels. He becomes a stand-in for the boys who've paid $10 to see The Rock pummel and be pummeled. Whether the smackdowns are attatched to a logical, clearly told story is beside the point.
Travis is a lapsed Stanford archeology doctoral candidate -- hold your fire, I said, "lapsed" -- and is this close to uncovering a highly profitable ancient artifact. Among those who also want it is Hatcher, the greedy American land baron, who's played at the hilt of otherworldly self-parody by Christopher Walken. (See above about Berg's skill with actors.) The boys are also in competition with a lady rebel (Rosario Dawson), whose oppressed and downtrodden people could really use the treasure's monetary and spiritual benefits.
"The Rundown" comes on like a runaway Humvee. There's an exciting opening sequence in which Beck starts and finishes his last assignment in an azure-tinted nightclub, where he winds up beating up the offensive line of an NFL team. We get haywire montages of dilated pupils and wild animals wedded to the sound of crushed bones. Of late the action movie has been comfortably ensconced in all things hip-hop, but the dominant mood in "The Rundown" is rock 'n' roll aggression. When Beck finally uncorks in that club, it's to a guitar-and-drums remix of Missy Elliott's "Get Ur Freak On."
What's truly impressive about the scene is how The Rock is a source of kept cool while the movie demonstrates a rabid need to break stuff. He suavely smiles through the insults one football player hurls at him, excusing himself when a drink is tossed in his face. (It's exhilarating to see him thinking, "Do not Hulk-out! Do not Hulk-out!") Eventually though, the movie forces him to fight, and before long, there's blood on the dance floor. And later, rumbles all over the jungle. For director Berg, "The Rundown" marks a vast improvement over his first movie, 1998's equally hyperactive but morally childish "Very Bad Things" -- even if most of the visual cues in "The Rundown" and its juvenile infatuation with fisticuffs are taken from Tony Scott's productions for Jerry Bruckheimer.
Based on this movie and last year's "The Scorpion King," Hollywood wants to keep The Rock doing smackdown. Because he weighs in at 255 pounds, stands 6 foot 5, and wrestles professionally for Vince McMahon's WWE, he ought to be piledriving and clotheslining movie extras. He's not meant to have costars -- only opponents.Around the time of the opening scene, The Rock heads into the nightclub only to be passed by none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger. "Good luck," Arnold says, basically handing off his old genre. But why should The Rock settle for Schwarzenegger's leftovers when he can already be seen playing terminator on TV? The Rock ought to expand his horizons and get himself a nice, quiet comedy.
** 1/2
Wesley Morris can be reached at wmorris@globe.com.
