Walking Tall is a fine enough action-crime movie and an early film in Dwayne Johnson’s career where he probably was just getting used to becoming the action-filled actor we know him to be today.
Walking Tall
— MVD Marquee Collection —
(2004)
Genre(s): Action, Drama, Crime
MVD Visual | PG13 – 86 min. – $0.00 | August 14, 2018
Date Published: 08/13/2018 | Author: The Movieman
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MVD Visual provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 3.0/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: When decorated military officer Chris Vaughn (DWAYNE JOHNSON) returns to his hometown in the state of Washington to find work, he finds that the lumber mill has closed, and the town’s big business is now a seedy casino operated by one of his old schoolmates, Jay Hamilton (NEAL MCDONOUGH). Aided by his loyal friend Ray Templeton (JOHNNY KNOXVILLE), Vaughn tries to make a stand against the area’s crime and corruption, but, finding no help from the police, he must take matters into his own hands. Quick Hit Review: I’ve no doubt already mentioned this, but I was not the biggest fan of The Rock, now credited with his real name Dwayne Johnson, when I saw him in The Scorpion King. Well, over the years he has actually become one of my favorite actors working today, not so much for his range as he generally does play the same kind of character, but the dude has charm. Walking Tall was one of his earliest films and you can tell, not only because he doesn’t seem quite comfortable, at least to me, in front of the camera but he looks rather small compared to his hulked-out body today (not to mention he has some hair). Although this movie is rather basic in its plot and characters, I did find it mostly entertaining for what it is. Neal McDonough plays up the asshole villain well enough and Johnny Knoxville was thankfully not obnoxious, so that is a plus. Oh, and Ashley Scott serves as a thinly written love interest, and was a reminder that was sort of the “it” girl back in the early 2000s with not only this but Into the Blue and even the lead in the short-lived Birds of Prey television series as well as Jericho. In the end, Walking Tall was a fun crime-actioner remake that does show a glimmer of what Dwayne Johnson, still credited as The Rock at this point, would later become. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.5/5 |
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This release comes with a matted slip cover. All of the features have been ported over from the original DVD version. Audio Commentaries:
There’s a good array of topics being covered between the two with The Rock being more of the entertaining brand, even going solo, while the second does get more technical and flows better. Fight the Good Fight (8:44; SD) is a behind-the-scenes featurette breakdown on the stunt work. Deleted Scenes (1:40; SD) and an Alternate Ending (1:20; SD). Rounding things out are Bloopers (0:48; SD), Photo Gallery and the Original Theatrical Trailer (1:16; HD). There are also trailers for others in the MVD Marquee Collection. |
VIDEO – 3.75/5 |
| Walking Tall takes a 2×4 onto Blu-ray where it is presented with a 2.35 widescreen aspect ratio and given a 1080p high-definition transfer. Since I don’t own the previous Blu-ray releases, I can’t compare, and I don’t know if this a new, but the old ones were had MPEG-2 codecs while this one is the standardized MPEG-4. In any case, the picture here doesn’t look bad as detail was decent enough and there are some pops of color while skin tones appear natural looking. There were some minor dust marks and specs but only noticeable if one were to do a freeze frame. |
AUDIO – 3.75/5 |
| The disc comes with an adequate but not-so-strong DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. This is likely the same one that came with the 2009/2011 releases. Even so, dialogue does come though naturally enough and there were no discernible hisses or pops while the action sequences, albeit lacking a good punch, were okay. |
OVERALL – 3.0/5 |
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Overall, Walking Tall is a fine enough action-crime movie and an early film in Dwayne Johnson’s career where he probably was just getting used to becoming the action-filled actor we know him to be today. The Blu-ray release from MVD’s new “Marquee Collection” puts together fine video/audio transfers and collects the bonus material previously only available on the DVD. |