Welcome to the Jungle

As Seen On DVD

When a film has to change names when it comes over from the states, it is not a good sign. This was known in the US as The Rundown, before it transferred here with the new name stolen from a well known song. I don’t think that changing the name of a film is going to make any difference, personally, but still the studios keep doing it. Who makes these decisions? “I know, let’s call it after that Guns’n’Roses track from way back – that’ll get them running into the cinema!”

It doesn’t matter, as the song by the Rock goes – this is not great cinema. It does what it says on the tin. It’s an action flick, a throwback to the bombastic movies of the 80s, usually starring Arnold Schwarzenegger (who makes a cameo in this film, handing over the baton of action star to the new boy). There are fights and guns and explosions and car chases and everyone lives happily ever after.

The Rock is a bounty hunter/ collector for a poorly defined Big Man, who gets sent to the Amazon to return the Big Man’s son (Seann William Scott) who is looking for an ancient artefact in the surrounding jungle. There, the Rock comes up against Walken as the Bad Guy, who is strip-mining the area for all it’s gold and causing suffering to the locals. There isn’t much depth apart from that, apart from trying to make the Rock have a thing against guns (mostly so he can do his muscley action stuff, but Peter Berg doesn’t direct these scenes with any sort of flourish, and they are edited too rapidly, presumably for MTV speed, but it doesn’t do any justice to the Rock’s grace and athleticism).

The Rock is certainly charming enough to carry this thin plot through to its expected conclusion. Scott does his usual thing, which apparently passes for humour these days. Rosario Dawson is in there as well, although I can’t see why – perhaps she’s doing an Affleck, mixing the safe, popular stuff (like this and Men In Black II) with the more artistic stuff (like Spike Lee’s 25 Hours). Walken is Walken, so all he has to do is do is stare and you know he’s the bad guy. Amongst all these, there is the bizarre and annoying conclusion of Ewen Bremner, a Scot, doing an almost indecipherable Northern Irish accent for not discernible reason – if they wanted a bizarre accent, surely his Scottish accent would have sufficed? This is the sort of film where, if you like this sort of film, then you will like this film, if that makes sense.

Rating: DA