Movie Reviews

Patti Perret / Twentieth Century Fox

Review in a Hurry: The director of Die Hard 2 rips off Die Hard 3 with WWE champion John Cena as the harried cop forced into a deadly scavenger hunt by a nasty Euro-baddie (Aidan Gillen). The result is hardly a masterpiece, but it's better than it ought to be.

The Bigger Picture: He's vanquished the 7-foot Great Khali, the Samoan Bulldozer, Umaga, and the sledgehammer-wielding Triple H, but this time around, Cena gets his ass handed to him by...a scrawny Irish guy who's apparently an international terrorist? Clearly, this isn't going to be a hand-to-hand battle, or the movie would last about five minutes.

So, John Cena playing a detective named Danny Fisher, in a battle of wits? You could be forgiven for thinking that doesn't seem like the best match of actor and role. And indeed, for the first thirty minutes or so, despite director Renny Harlin's capable cribbing of Paul Greengrass shaky-can, 12 Rounds is tediously obvious.

We see some of Fisher's home life, yet are given no reason to find him interesting, save for the fact that he's John Cena. Meanwhile, as his wife, Ashley Scott looks disappointed that she's yet again stuck playing a WWE love interest (she previously, and forgettably, romanced The Rock in Walking Tall).

Yet somewhere around the middle, Harlin—working from a screenplay by newcomer Daniel Kunka—starts pulling out a few interesting narrative tricks. Then he gives us a decent runaway tram bit that cribs from both Speed and Spider-Man 2, but does so pretty well. And by the time we get to a final helicopter fight where Cena and Gillen utilize more unusual, environment-appropriate weapons than you've ever seen in an Extreme Rules match, damned if the flick hasn't won us over. Just a li'l bit.

As for Cena, between the seriousness of this role and the campiness of his debut in The Marine, there definitely seems to be a modicum of acting rage in effect.

The 180—a Second Opinion: It's hard to know who this movie is actually for. Cena's core fan base of kids will probably be disappointed that he doesn't do any wrestling moves or freestyle raps, while those who appreciate the procedural storyline will wish Harlin were working without the constraints of PG-13.