The latest WWE venture into the world of big-screen cinema is 12 Rounds, the second such film to star multiple-time WWE wrestling champion John Cena. The first was The Marine, and this might as well be the same film. Both films feature kidnapped girlfriends and Cena running roughshod in his attempts to rescue the damsel in distress. There is nothing particularly special about either film, and it was pretty safe to skip them during their respective theatrical runs. I mean, it is not like you are in danger of missing a potential Oscar nominee. Of course, I have seen both in the theater, and enjoyed both to a certain extent.
12 Rounds plays out like a mash-up of Speed and Die Hard with a Vengeance. It seriously feels just like the Die Hard sequel. You have a bad guy with a plan and the intelligence to pull it off, giving the hero orders, telling him what to do, with dire consequences if he refuses. What follows is the hero's mad dash through the streets to prevent the bad things from happening. Will he succeed? I guess he would have to, otherwise this low-aiming film would be a serious disappointment.
Cena stars as Danny Fisher, an officer for the New Orleans Police Department. One night, while on patrol with his partner, he is called into the FBI pursuit of international fugitive arms dealer Miles Jackson, played by Aidan Gillen. The chase results in Danny being the hero, with the bad guy in custody. The only problem is that the chase resulted in the death of of the bad guy's girlfriend, and he has a long memory.
We jump forward a year, Danny is now a detective, living with his girlfriend (Ashley Scott) in a house that is in need of a lot of work. However, that is not the story. The story is that Miles has escaped from prison and has his eyes set on Danny, revenge on his mind. So Miles kidnaps Danny's girl and sets up a series of tests, twelve rounds of them (clever, no?). Miles calls Danny, tells him what needs to be done, what the consequences are, and how long he has to complete the task. Danny takes this information and acts upon it accordingly.
While the action is fast and furious, there is never any real sense of danger as we move through the various rounds. Why? Well, there are twelve of them, why should we get all tense in the early rounds? It has to be assumed that we are going to make it all the way to the twelfth, otherwise the title makes no sense. Plus, this is clearly meant to be a crowd pleaser, so the hero is going to have to come out on top. With this information a given, there isn't much reason to watch the movie, right? Correct, but I still think it is worth taking a look at, if only under the proper circumstances.
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