The Rock Action 3-Pack – Blu-ray Review

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson gets three of his action flicks collected for Blu-ray with Universal Home Entertainment’s release of The Rock Action 3-Pack – which features Doom, The Rundown, and The Scorpion King.

All three films were shot when Johnson was simply being billed as The Rock (he hadn’t become a serious actor yet), and are loaded with action. Out of the three, The Rundown is my favorite thanks to its blend of comedy, action, and director Peter Berg’s visual style. None of the films were going to win The Rock an Oscar, but all three are fun if you just turn the brain off.

The Scorpion King – A prequel to The Mummy Returns sees The Rock heading to the land of ancient Egypt to play the deadly warrior/assassin Mathayus who would later become the legendary Scorpion King. He is joined by Michael Clarke Duncan, Steven Brand, Kelly Hu, and Bernard Hill. The film was directed by Chuck Russell and written by Jonathan Hales, Stephen Sommers, William Osborne, David Hayter. The PG-13 friendly plot sees Mathayus tackling his destiny when he sets out to kill the evil king Memnon (Brand) and ends up falling in love with Memnon's sorceress Cassandra (Hu). The film never really gets firing on all cylinders and has more holes in it than a slice of Swiss Cheese. Still, it is a fun movie and captures the general B movie feel of The Mummy franchise. As The Rock’s first big staring role (he appeared in The Mummy Returns but just growled and yelled a lot), he handles the acting well, manages to make the fight sequences feel somewhat real. He also shows some of the potential he had to become a major Hollywood star (or at least he most successful wrestler turned actor).The film’s greatest weakness is the family friendly PG-13 rating which limited the amount of violence and blood that could be shown on screen. The film looks solid on Blu-ray with the desert shots really bringing detail to the screen. It is light on features consisting of commentary, U-Control, and Picture in Picture “behind the scenes” access.

The Rundown – Directed by Peter Berg and written by R.J. Stewart and James Vanderbilt, the movie sees The Rock star as Beck – an expert at retrieving things who is tired of hurting people and wants to become a professional chef. Before he can open his restaurant, he has to do one more job for his boss and heads to the Amazon to retrieve the boss’ son Travis (Sean William Scott), and bring him back to settle a debt. Beck quickly finds out the job is going to be harder than he planned and clashes with the local bad guy, Hatcher (played by a line-chewing Christopher Walken). Before he knows what is happening, Beck is in the jungle with Travis and Mariana (Rosario Dawson) trying to discover an idol that will free Mariana’s people from Hatcher’s hold.The movie’s pace stays full-throttle throughout the entire film and it is filled with some great dialogue (Walken’s rant about the Tooth Fairy is worth picking it up alone). There is great chemistry between The Rock and Scott, and the two provide some killer laughs (the baboon scene will keep you laughing for a while).Berg does an excellent job mixing the action elements with the comedy, and also manages to give the film a fresh visual style with director of photography Tobias Schliessler.The film looks incredible on Blu-ray with the jungle colors popping on the screen, and the explosive final action sequence.The Blu-ray is packed with features including deleted scenes, “making of” looks, a look at Walken, and commentary. It also comes equipped with BD Live.

Doom – The Rock heads to space for the big screen adaptation of the hit video game. The film (which at times feels like Resident Evil in space) was directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak and written by Dave Callaham and Wesley Strick. For his space outing, The Rock is joined by Karl Urban and Rosamund Pike.The movie goes completely off track by the end (where it switches to a first-person perspective to capture the feel of the game), but manages to create some mood and thrills in the beginning. The Rock is the leader of a group of commandos sent on a rescue mission to Mars after an alarm is hit at the space base. Don’t worry about the plot, the movie is about The Rock and other members of his squad packing big guns and spraying a lot of blood across the screen.Doom moves along at a predictable speed, has all the predictable jumps and twist, and tends to get comical towards the end. Still, it is a fun movie if you just want a blood and guts sci-fi/action flick that at times seems like a throwback to the glory days of the 80s.Doom is another solid release for Blu-ray (although the some of the special effects don’t hold up to Blu-ray’s crystal clear picture), but the format doesn’t save the film from its faults.It comes loaded with features that take you into the making of the movie, how the effects were created, make-up involved, and a look at the first-person shooter sequence. It also features BD Live.Although they aren’t Oscar winners, The Rock Action 3-Pack features a collection of fun movies that require no thought and are easy to enjoy. If you are a fan of The Rock or the action genre, they are worth picking up.The Rock Action 3-Pack [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon. Visit the DVD database for more information.