Ultimate DVD Movie and Home Cinema Experience

DVD Movie Rating for: Walking Tall

Rating for Walking Tall: 5 out of 5 stars

Movie Plot of: Walking Tall

U.S. Special Forces soldier Chris Vaughn who has returned to his hometown to renew old relationships and make a new life for himself. But while Chris was away, his boyhood town wasted away to a dilapidated, crime-ridden shell of itself. His wealthy high school rival, Jay Hamilton, has closed the once-prosperous lumber mill--once the area's largest employer--and has turned the town's resources towards criminal gains. The place Chris grew up is now overrun with crime, drugs, and violence. Enlisting the help of his old pal Ray Templeton, Chris gets elected sheriff and vows to shut down Hamilton's operations. His actions endanger his family and threaten his own life, but Chris refuses to back down until his hometown once again feels like home. Chris Vaughn won't talk softly any longer--and he carries a very big stick.

DVD Production Details of: Walking Tall

Starring: The Rock, Johnny Knoxville
Director: Kevin Bray

Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen
Aspect Ratio(s): 2.35:1
Audio Encoding: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround

Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
DVD Release Date: September 28, 2004
Run Time: 86
:

Walking Tall DVD Extra Bonus Features

Available subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
Commentary by the Rock
Commentary by the director and crew
Deleted scenes
Bloopers
Alternate ending
"Fight the Good Fight" stunts featurette
Photo gallery

Cast of the movie: Walking Tall

• The Rock .... Chris Vaughn
• Johnny Knoxville .... Ray Templeton
• Neal McDonough .... Jay Hamilton
• Kristen Wilson .... Michelle Vaughn
• Ashley Scott .... Deni
• Khleo Thomas .... Pete Vaughn
• John Beasley .... Chris Vaughn Sr.
• Barbara Tarbuck .... Connie Vaughn
• Michael Bowen .... Sheriff Stan Watkins
• Kevin Durand .... Booth
• Andrew Tarbet .... Jimmy
• Patrick Gallagher .... Keith
• John Stewart .... Rusty
• Eric Breker .... Deputy Ralston
• Ryan Robbins .... Travis
• Michael Adamthwaite .... Burke
• Darcy Laurie .... Smitty
• Fred Keating .... Doctor
• Ben Cardinal .... Michelle's Partner
• Kett Turton .... Kenner
• Terence Kelly .... Judge L. Powell
• Tom Scholte .... Merle Crowe
• Mark Houghton .... County Prosecutor
• James Ashcroft .... Bailiff
• Eric Keenleyside .... Dan Stadler
• Aaron Douglas .... Casino Stickman
• Michael Soltis .... Casino Maintenance Worker
• April Telek .... Casino Waitress (as April Amber Telek)
• Sandra Steier .... Addict Mother
• Ben Cotton .... Drug Dealer
• Cobie Smulders .... Exotic Beauty
• Chelsie Amber McEachnie .... Lap Dancer
• Kaja Gjesdal .... Lap Dancer
• Melody Cherpaw .... Lap Dancer (as Melody Tinesa Cherpaw)
• Alana Drozduke .... Casino Trashy Woman
• Sandra Higueras .... Casino Trashy Woman
• Ty Olsson .... Deputy
• Ana Mirkovic .... Blackjack Dealer
• David Purvis .... Ray's AA Sponsor
• Beverley Elliott .... Nurse
• Rita Theresa Edwards .... Wet T-Shirt Girl
• Sara Smith .... Wet T-Shirt Girl
• Douglas Sheridan .... Boxman
• Katina Robillard .... Dollar Bill Girl
• Jacqueline Stewart .... Girl on Platform
• Sandra-Jessica Couturier .... Casino VIP (uncredited)
• Mike Dopud .... Casino Security (uncredited)

Photo Gallery of the movie: Walking Tall

Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size high quality photos, posters and wallpapers of Walking Tall

Walking Tall

Reviews of the movie: Walking Tall

The all-American butt-kicking charisma of former wrestler and action-hero heir-apparent The Rock seems to have a miraculous, popcorn-pleasure effect on otherwise lame movies.

"The Scorpion King" would have been straight-to-video fare without his capricious, self-aware screen presence and "The Rundown" was bargain-basement Steven Seagal fodder that this guy's muscular smile helped lift to the level of a gratifying, preposterous-fracas matinee fodder.

Any fan of The Rock (the actor or the wrestler) will find similar lowbrow satisfaction in his latest B-movie -- a remake of the vigilante-justice flick "Walking Tall."

Based on the shot-eight-times, stabbed-eight-times legend of Tennessee sheriff Buford H. Pusser, who walloped the butts of a ruthless hillbilly gang with a 2x4 he carried around, this update takes even more liberties with the "true story" than the 1973 original did -- starting with turning the hero into Chris Vaughn, a half-Samoan Gulf War veteran. Vaughn (The Rock) returns to his Washington-state hometown to find the mill closed, the streets plagued with druggies and porn shops, and the people's livelihood dependent on a crooked casino run by an old friend named Jay (Neal McDonough) who has become a rich rat.

Offered the VIP treatment at the sprawling joint's tables his first weekend back, Vaughn gets into a brawl with security guards when he catches a craps dealer with loaded dice. Next thing he knows, he's in the basement getting cut up by henchmen, who leave him for dead on a nearby road -- and after he recovers, there's hell to be paid.

Carrying what looks like a railroad tie from the old mill as a weapon, Vaughn declares war and begins administering larger-than-life retribution, with only a short pause in the action when the casino presses charges. Acquitted by a jury of fed-up townspeople, Vaughn is soon elected sheriff (ousting Jay's corrupt lackey) and sets out to finish what he started. But Jay, his thugs and the shady ex-sheriff aren't going to go down without a fight -- several huge gunfights, in fact.

Director Kevin Bray ("All About the Benjamins") makes some savvy cinematic choices -- lighting under-exposures, overhead tracking shots, unexpected silences on the soundtrack -- that make "Walking Tall" snap and crackle with more creativity than anyone would expect of a movie with such base appeal. Continuing to grow as an actor (surprisingly enough), even in a flick as simplistic as this one, The Rock suppresses his cheekiness and gives his character a humble, genuine Everyman appeal. And between the two of them, this picture has just enough going for it to balance out the elements that don't work so well, like over-edited fight scenes with too many action-blurred close-ups that are hard to make heads or tails of until they're all over and the losers are groaning on the ground.

Of course, the film has more fundamental problems -- like the fact that if you stop to think about it for two seconds, this guy's law-flaunting version of justice is no more ethical than the version his crooked predecessor practiced. It just favors the other side of the equation.

The final showdown is also an anti-climactic let-down -- not because it's over the top, but because it's so rudimentary and unevenly matched that it should be over in 10 seconds, not five minutes.

But here's what this review boils down to: As with his more unabashedly fun-loving previous films, "Walking Tall" works only because The Rock can carry it on his absurdly broad shoulders. Whether or not that's good enough to spend money on is up to you

Crisply directed by Kevin Bray, the film is a remake of the Nixon-era law-and-order hit of the same name, which was set in a Tennessee town taken over by vice peddlers and starred Joe Don Baker as Sheriff Buford Pusser, a no-nonsense guy who cleaned up the town with the help of a huge wooden club. In the new film, the action has been transposed to Washington State (probably to allow the producers to shoot in the budget-friendly confines of British Columbia), and the Southern sheriff has become a Special Forces veteran who returns to find his hometown, once a cozy logging community nestled in a mountain valley, turned into a hellish den of iniquity. With a brisk running time of 85 minutes, there is no more fat on "Walking Tall" than there is on the Rock himself, a hulking yet curiously ingratiating presence who seems the most likely candidate to replace Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as America's favorite living comic book characte