12 Rounds

Directed by: Renny Harlin

Starring: John Cena, Ashley Scott, Aiden Gillen, Steve Harris, Brian White, Gonzalo Menendez

Synopsis:

New Orleans patrolman Danny Fisher manages to single-handedly arrest notorious criminal mastermind Miles Davis, shortly after he’d managed to escape an FBI sting operation. However during the arrest, Miles’ girlfriend is accidentally killed by a speeding truck when Miles orders her to run. One year later, Danny, now a detective, receives a phone call from Miles whose just escaped from prison and intends on making Danny pay for the death of his girlfriend. Danny is forced to play a deadly game in which everyone he holds dear will be put in jeopardy...



Review:

Okay, time for a confession – I watch WWE wrestling on tv. My wife loves it, my son seems to enjoy it too. And of all the “Superstars of Sports Entertainment”, John Cena is one of the most enigmatic, charismatic, humorous, larger-than-life guys out there and you can’t help but cheer him on every week.

Unfortunately, the John Cena that turns up on the cinema screen is dour, serious and po-faced all the time. This is the big difference between Duane “The Rock” Johnson and Cena. Cena needs to lighten up and have some fun.

Cena’s previous movie, The Marine, benefited from a script with some clever and funny dialogue (for the villains – Cena’s character was way too serious of course), and Robert Patrick having the time of his life as the main bad-guy. 12 Rounds doesn’t have Robert Patrick, nor does it have a witty script. What it does have in its favour, is director Renny Harlin.There are two things that Renny can do really well – tense, exciting action scenes and really big explosions – and 12 rounds has plenty of both, starting with Cena’s car, then his house being blown to smithereens. Other highlights include the attempt to stop a runaway tram and a race across town in a firetruck.

The plot is basically an update of Die Hard With a Vengeance: cop Cena must perform a series of near-impossible tasks in order to keep his girlfriend alive, while the tasks themselves may conceal a hidden agenda. Cena is helped and hindered by a number of character ciphers – his fireman brother, his partner, a couple of FBI agents who want to exploit Cena’s plight to draw Miles out of hiding.

Of the supporting cast, Ashley Scott does well, both in her scenes with Cena and when she’s in peril. She also gets the best audience cheer when she stands up to Miles. Aiden Gillen plays a rather ordinary criminal mastermind with no interesting character traits or tics. This may be more “realistic” for a successful criminal mastermind to blend into the background, but this is a John Cena/Renny Harlin movie and “realistic” wasn’t invited to the party. As I said at the top of the review, Robert Patrick would have nailed this.

Cena gets to emote a lot – shouting at just about everybody. He handles his softer scenes with Ashley Scott very well and the domestic scenes at the beginning were really good. But I know that if he could bring some of that ringside magic to the movie set, he could be huge.

Verdict:

Renny Harlin delivers the action but the story is paper thin, and the villain is mediocre. John Cena could be the next Action Hero if he can bring some of his WWE charisma to the silver screen.

6 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)