Starring: The Rock, Johnny Knoxville, Neal McDonough, Kristen Wilson, Ashley Scott (II) Directed By: Kevin Bray Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: DVD Format: AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC Label: MGM (Video & DVD) Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: September 28, 2004 Running Time: 86 minutes Theatrical Release Date: April 02, 2004
Product Description: MGM Walking Tall - DVD After eight years, decoratedArmy veteran Chris Vaughn (The Rock) returns to his hometown and finds it ravaged by poverty, drugsand corruption. Its once-thriving lumber mill is closed, and a glitzy, crime-ridden casino is now the chief source of income. Pushed to the brink, Chris pushes back and soon becomes a target for murder. Now it's up to this Special Forces hero to clean up his town...or die trying! Starring: TheRock [WWF], Johnny Knoxville, Neal McDonough, Kristen Wilson, Ashley Scott Director: Kevin Bray
Amazon.com: The Rock is definitely Walking Tall in this straightforward remake of the popular 1973 revenge flick based on the real-life exploits of Sheriff Buford Pusser. Only the basic premise of the original film remains, but it's well-suited to the Rock's rising-star agenda, and it's a savvy, albeit uninspired follow-up to his previous hit, The Rundown. With typical beefcake bravado, Chris Vaughan (the Rock) arrives home in rural Kitsap County, Washington (filmed in budget-friendly Canada, of course) to find his hometown overtaken by childhood friend-turned-sleazebag casino owner and drug-dealer Jay Hamilton (played with steely-eyed malevolence by Neal McDonough), whose squad of goons includes the local sheriff. The cards are instantly and simplistically stacked against our hero, but no matter: he's soon kickin' ass and takin' names as the new sheriff, and from that point director Kevin Bray (All About the Benjamins) goes strictly by-the-numbers, limiting this punchy programmer to a brisk 85 minutes, with comic relief (courtesy of costar Johnny Knoxville) and an obligatory love-interest (Ashley Scott, in obligatory skimpy attire) tossed in for good measure. It's a cracker movie for a cracker audience, and on those terms it handily expedites the Rock's ascension to the action-movie throne. --Jeff Shannon
Good Movie Walking Tall I think two things we can all say about WWE Films are that: one- they will never be taken seriously, and two- they mostly produce under whelming films. WWE Films however played very little role in the making of this movie. The Rock and MGM Studios put on a very entertaining movie full of action and emotion.
Chris Vaughn, played by The Rock, returns home from the Special Forces. He soon found out that his home sweet home isn't the same place he left. It is a world filled with drugs. The drugs come from a casino owned by Chris's friend, Jay Hamilton.
Chris goes out with his friends to the casino to have a good time. He soon becomes agitated to find out that they are using loaded dice to screw people out of their money. The Rock, being the man that he is, takes exception to this and begins to tear the Casino to pieces in a brawl with security. Chris gets caught though and is taking to be brutally torn apart by them in a back room. They throw him out in the street for dead.
Luckily, The Rock lives and seeks vengeance. He soon becomes the sheriff and begins working on fixing the town. He quickly recruits one of his best friend's, Ray, to be his only officer. Ray is played by Johnny Knoxville and he does a great job of bringing a comical sense to this movie. It creates a good balance.
Chris's weapon of choice is a large piece of Cedar. That's right, he uses a huge piece of wood to put the hurt on people. This leads to some great action scenes. They use guns later on in the movie, but the scenes with the cedar are much better.
I would suggest this DVD to anyone. There are two extra commentaries worth listening to. One is by The Rock and the other is by the Director and Crew. Both of them are worth listening to. Other extras include deleted scenes, bloopers, and an alternate ending.
You're all fired Walking Tall DVD
Walking Tall is a remake of [[ASIN:B000VDDDWI Walking Tall]. This time the Rock stars as an Army Officer who has come home to find his hometown full of vice and corruption. In this movie he finds a 4X4 versus an axe handle to use as a "helper". I think I'd prefer the axe handle. Highly recommended for fans of the Rock and for people who think Wrestling is real, but the moon landing was fake.
Gunner April, 2008
Isn't violence fun Former Army Sergeant, Chris Vaughn (The Rock), returns to his home town to discover that it is now controlled by a slimy casino owner who peddles sex, drugs and gambling to the townsfolk. After his young nephew almost dies of an overdose from drugs that originated in the casino, Vaughn runs for sheriff and cleans up the town.
"Walking Tall" is essentially just an old-fashioned Western in a modern setting. The plot is very simple: there is virtually no character development, no unexpected plot twists, and everyone is exactly what they appear to be; and is essentially just a vehicle for 75 minutes (it's not a very long film) of gratuitous violence. In fact, because of this, some people may consider this film to be unwatchably bad. Nevertheless, fans of The Rock do not watch his films for his superior acting ability and will probably love every moment of it.
Comparing this to other films starring The Rock, this is one of his better films. The scene where he trashes the casino is really great (after watching it, I immediately skipped back and watched it again), as is the subsequent trial and the supporting actors manage to hold their own (Johnny Knoxville as The Rock's deputy is great, as is Neal McDonough as the villain).
"Walking Tall" is a remake of a 1973 movie of the same title (which was based on a true story) and has spawned two straight to DVD sequels starring Kevin Sorbo. The original movie, itself, also spawned two sequels and a TV series.
ROCK ON The legend of Buford Pusser was well documented not only in books written about him but in the films previously made. WALKING TALL, WALKING TALL PART II, FINAL CHAPTER WALKING TALL and A REAL AMERICAN HERO have covered the life of the famous lawman in depth. So why make this movie again? Simply because it's a story that needs to be offered to a new generation. The only problem here is that while entertaining, the film makers have taken far too many liberties and changed far too many facts.
The story of Buford Pusser took place in Tennessee in a small town that was over run by corruption until Pusser, the victim of an attack by those in charge, decided to run for the office of sheriff and clean up his home town. In the process, he was attacked, his wife murdered and eventually he himself was killed under mysterious circumstances. All of this is tossed aside for an update that while not telling his story accurately, does entertain.
Dwayne Johnson, otherwise known to fans as the Rock, stars as Chris Vaughan, a young man returning home after years away in the military. Chris comes back to find that the lumber mill is no longer open and that the newest business in town is the casino owned by his old high school friend Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough). When Chris and his friends run into a problem at Jay's casino involving crooked dealers, they are beaten down. Chris, not one to run from a fight gets the worst of it, carved up by Jay's men and dumped on the roadside left for dead.
Chris survives the attack and stews quietly over the situation. When recovered, he returns to the casino to seek revenge, wreaking havoc on all who are there and resulting in being arrested by the crooked town sheriff. Defending himself on trial, Chris reveals the scars left on his body from that night and is acquitted of all charges. And seeing that no one is willing to stand up for the towns people, Chris then runs for and wins the election, taking over as the new sheriff.
Using a large piece of lumber to enforce the law, Chris takes along his best friend from high school (Johnny Knoxville) and they begin to clean up the town. Tracking down the dealers in drugs that are employees of Jay, they dampen the influx of money to the casino. Threats are exchanged between Jay and Chris and eventually the ex-sheriff comes calling in an attempt on Chris' life. But it will take more than a few men with machine guns to stop Chris from taking back his town. And in the end, you know that an action filled fight is on its way.
The Rock is perhaps one of the most charismatic of WWE superstars to find his way to the silver screen. Choosing his parts carefully from THE SCORPION KING to this film is a smart move on his part, relying at first on physical parts but developing his skills as an actor along the way. His performance here is first rate depending not only on his muscular abilities but in his acting skills as well. We must not only want his character to whomp *ss but to feel for him and his family as well. And the Rock does carry this off.
Did we need another remake? Perhaps not. Did we need a retelling? Again maybe we didn't. But we can always use a well made action film to release us from the day to day grind. And that is delivered here in spades.
With a name like Buford Pusser, you gotta be tough! When the Rock is in a movie about cleaning house, beating the tar out of people, and all out manly shenanigans, there is pretty much a guaranteed good movie on the horizon. In fact, Walking Tall has already established itself well enough to be included in the small selection of great guy movies shown over and over and over on TBS (The list also includes: The Outsiders, Red Dawn, Heartbreak Ridge, and Road House).
The Rock plays the role of Chris Vaughn, a man just back from war and his stint in the Army, who is looking forward to returning to his home town in Washington and enjoying life post-military. The role is based on the true story of Buford Pusser, a man who, because of his name, simply had to be tough, and as sheriff, took the law into his own hands. Vaughn, like Pusser, runs into a town that needs help, and he's just the man to do it. And how's he going to do it? Oh, wait, did he just pick up?...yeah...he did. He just picked up a massive 5-foot piece of wood, and he plans on breaking the arms and legs of everyone in his way.
In true tough-guy-takes-on-entire-town fashion, Vaughn soon finds his protagonist (John Beasley), who is only important in the sense that there needed to be a bad-guy who gets either his face bashed in or an appendage snapped in two. It turns out that there is a town-wide conspiracy involving drugs and the local cash-cow casino. It's so deep even the sleazy local cops are involved, all but providing personal bodyguard services to the bad guys and his drug dealers at the casino.
It's up to Rock, who teams up with his old buddy (Johnny Knoxville), to become sheriff, take down the bad guys, and save the town. Along the way he hooks up with a former classmate (Ashley Scott), who is basically in the movie because she's gorgeous, looks great in a red bra, and fulfills the minimum of one hot-woman-in-action-movie rule. What ensues is a bunch of The Rock doing what The Rock does, cool demeanor, tough-guy antics, and eyebrow pushups rule as he shows everyone involved that he walks just a little taller than they do.
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