Walking tall, falling down

Walking Tall (2004)
MGM presents a Kevin Bray film, starring The Rock and Johnny Knoxville. Written by Mort Briskin, David Klass, Channing Gibson, David Levien and Brian Koppelman. 97 minutes. Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense violence, sexual content, drug material and language.

1 star

The 1990s gave us “vehicles,” where action pictures were made around certain high-profile stars. The 2000s have given us “sequel mania,” where anything and everything that can rub two nickels together at the box office gets remade, redone, re-envisioned, regurgitated.

Equally from both of those molds is “Walking Tall,” an excuse to capitalize on The Rock’s growing power in Hollywood and a re-imagining of a 1973 film about a no-nonsense sheriff from the South.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m tantalized by the prospect of seeing the current World Wrestling Entertainment superstar in as many “blow-’em-ups” as possible. His uncanny sense of humor mixed with his impressive brawn makes him a viable action hero. I’m just not willing to see lesser movies greenlighted while studios bank on his star power.

And essentially, this is what “Walking Tall” is: A movie that has removed the brains and upped the sexual titillation instead. The film has nothing to say that an after-school special denouncing drugs wouldn’t already convey, leaving this picture’s message strongly sanitized even if its aesthetics depict the high gloss of casino gambling and pornography.

In a story that only hints of the life of Sheriff Buford Prusser, Chris Vaughn (The Rock) return to his quiet Washington hometown to find the community’s staple, the old mill, closed down. In its place, a seedy entrepreneur named Jay Hamilton Jr. (Neal McDonough) has built a half-casino, half-strip-club appropriately named “Wild Cherry.” Despite its prosperous gains and its employment keeping the town afloat, Vaughn realizes its also a modern-day den of iniquity. The employees are part-time drug dealers and the games are fixed - more so than they usually are. To top it all off, Vaughn’s high school sweetheart (Ashley Scott) is now employed by the casino as a pole dancer.

With the sheriff’s department on the payroll, it’s up to Vaughn to fight singularly to win back the town. Of course, he eventually does, with the help of surprisingly restrained Johnny Knoxville - but I’m left with literally dozens of questions. First and foremost, did he really think this through?

I’m not here to argue that any town in Pacific Northwest needs to be an epicenter for drugs. But, with the closing of the town’s sole employer, what does Sheriff Vaughn propose to revitalize the neighborhood? Will eliminating the small-time dealers really stimulate the economy in this dried-up well of a town?

The film also conveniently forgets the dozens of people who want Vaughn dead because of their association with the casino or Hamilton. They made great “dime a dozen” bad guys when offices and cars needed to be blown up. But with the eventual arrest - and apparently successful prosecution of Hamilton by the film’s end - did all of these loyalists up and move?
“Walking Tall” doesn’t have time to concern itself with such trivialities (nor with the bad business sense it seems to have a casino also act as a strip joint). The screenwriters make sure that no one associated with the “good” side dies, that Vaughn is found suitable companionship and that everyone feels like patting each other on the back and knocking back a couple of celebratory beers over lunch at the local mom-and-pop deli.

It’s boring, it’s trivial and a listless action movie to boot. “Walking Tall” is a sure dud in an already growing season of misfires.