I was discussing 12 Rounds with a buddy of mine from Chicago—old friend; we’ve been through plenty together—and he told me something that changed my entire view of 12 Rounds in retrospect. He told me that movies involving wrestlers generally just wind up with them being a kind of insane superhero sort, so what was the point in watching them?
And after he said that, I took a look at 12 Rounds in a whole new light.
12 Rounds, you see, is all about a lucky break and what it generates. Patrolman Danny Fisher stumbles onto the bust of a lifetime when he manages to nab an FBI-wanted Irish terrorist. As a result of this phenomenal bust, that also manages to kill said terrorist’s girlfriend, Danny and his partner are promoted to detective. They’ve been living it up ever since, but the one year anniversary of the terrorist’s arrest brings bad news—the terrorist has broken out of jail and is looking to take revenge. Not just looking, either—he DOES take revenge, and take it in a grandiose and thoroughly unlikely style. He’s got a whole slew of obstacles set up, and when he kidnaps Danny’s girlfriend, he runs Danny through the obstacle course he’s set up all across New Orleans. But is there something more to the picture than Danny realizes?
Short answer: yes. Long answer: to tell you would be spoilering.
If this movie feels as familiar to you as it felt to me, don’t be surprised. Variations on this theme have cropped up in literally dozens of action / thriller / crime dramas for decades. There are shades of Lethal Weapon and Die Hard and a whole host of other, similar action titles stuck into this thing.
And indeed, the whole wrestler-as-super hero theme that most of these wrestler movies seem to propagate, as my old buddy suggested, is in full effect on this one. John Cena, playing here as Danny Fisher, will manage to outrun a car and use a BOAT as a temporary blockade. Granted, the boat was on a trailer and he outran the car by cutting through houses, but still—these are not the kind of moves that anything less than an action movie superhero cop can pull off. So it’s not surprising to see that wrestler Cena is given these kinds of irrational moves.
This does distract somewhat, because irrational moves hurt the plausibility factor, but as a whole the movie remains fairly solid. If you don’t go in with unusually high expectations, but rather expecting unlikely action movie stunts and abilities with plenty of car chases and tire screeches (seriously, you’ve never heard so many tire screeches in a movie—I can’t remember the last time I heard anything even remotely on par with this), then you’re not terribly likely to be disappointed by this.
12 Rounds is so much like other action movies before it that, if you see it, you’ll find little new here. If you liked what you already saw, then chances are you won’t be too let down by what you’re about to see. On the other hand, if you’re not in the mood for a movie, you can relax, confident in the knowledge that you really haven’t missed anything.
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While out doing promotion for 12 Rounds, director Renny Harlin