The Rundown (2003)
Rating (1 to 10) : 4
Summary: Beck is a bounty hunter given one more task – bring back the son of his boss from the Amazon region of Brazil.
Beck (the Rock, Mathayus in “The Scorpion King”) is a bounty hunter/gopher for his underworld boss. His jobs range from forcefully taking property as collateral from someone who took out a loan from his boss to catching people who his boss wants brought back. But Beck is tired of his “profession” and wants out. So his boss offers him a cool $250K if Beck would go down Brazil and bring back his son Travis, an archaeology student dropout loafing around in the Amazon. It is agreed that this will be Beck’s last job; afterwards, Beck plans to open up a restaurant.
That is the basic premise of the movie and Beck arrives in a town in the jungles of the Amazon where the only way in is via a flight on a rickety plane. His job turns out more difficult than he expected because it turns out Travis (Seann William Scott, Stifler in the “American Pie” series) is on the trail of a very valuable and ancient statue called El Gato hidden by the natives a long time ago. The manager of the local mining firm, Hatcher (Christopher Walken, Vincenzo in “True Romance”), who doubles as a local mob boss, will not allow Travis to leave until he finds El Gato. Thus the conflict.
Everything is as predictable as you would expect. The role of the Rock, aka Beck, is to do fight scenes while the main supporting actor Seann William Scott, aka Travis, is to play the obnoxious sidekick. There is somewhat of a twist as both Beck and Travis get caught in a rebel movement out to stop Hatcher. Some laughs might come from watching Travis and Beck get stoned on psychedelic, paralyzing fruits called konlabos (which are purely fictional). Other than that, there really isn’t much to this movie.
Why you should or should not see this movie:
This is a “mental cheetos” movie. If you want to burn a few hours or a fan of the Rock, this might perk your interest. Frankly, the highlight for me was when Beck beat up the obnoxious Seann William Scott character, something that many of you would agree would be apropos.
Memorable quotes
