WALKING TALL: The uncluttered poster for Walking Tall depicts The Rock holding a great, big plank of wood. Is he going to hit people over the head with his plank, you ask? Is he heck!
When Chris Vaughn returns from fighting with the Special Forces to discover that the town he grew up in has become overrun by drugs and vice, he gets himself elected sheriff and proceeds to bash his way through the villains. As it collects dents and cracks (and, eventually, a handle) the plank - or perhaps it would be more accurately described as a post - takes on real character. It is one of cinema's great planks.
At this point, many critics might take time out to make smart-alec remarks about the relative acting abilities of plank and Rock, but not me. The former Dwayne Johnson may never satisfactorily play the Dane, but he emanates a warm energy which, ironically for an action hero, makes him a rather comforting presence.
The Rock does the same sort of job that John Wayne used to do and, though it's actually a remake of a low-budget hit from the 1970s, Walking Tall could be a dumb-ass reimagining of The Duke's Rio Bravo. Somebody called Ashley Scott plays the Angie Dickinson role of the erotic dancer who gets in with the good guys. And Johnny Knoxvillle, an unlikely Dean Martin, plays the amiable drunk.
Sadly, such comparisons only serve to highlight just how thin Walking Tall is. That said, it is tight, unpretentious and (unless I am reading it wrong) frequently funny on purpose.
- Donald Clarke
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