12 Rounds

If you can just avoid asking "how?" you might enjoy this film as an exciting collection of action scenes. The villain does bad things, and the hero John Cena manages to save the day (as expected). Reality and logic are overlooked when they are in conflict with a good action scene. The fact that the action in this film could never, never ever happen is beside the point.

Very little time is spent on character development, since all you need to know is who the villain is. You find this out within a minute or two, and you can then switch off your brain for the rest of the film.

This film is immune to criticism. John Cena does not have any big acting scenes, and might even be capable of passable acting. However, he's not called upon to do much acting. His execution of the stunts and action scenes is amazing.

How can anyone complain about an illogical plot when the film was produced by the WWE and stars a professional wrestler? The movie was filmed entirely in New Orleans,and makes terrific use of dozens of locations. I probably gave it an extra point or two for this.

The scene with the "runaway streetcar" has got to be an in-joke, because the "real" Canal Street streetcar cannot travel more than a half-block at a time at a very, very slow pace. It is frequently blocked by vehicles stopped across its tracks. The havoc (if not revenge) wreaked on vehicular traffic by this runaway streetcar has got to bring delight to any local streetcar rider.

If you're going to watch this movie, it will be to see vehicles crash into other vehicles and cause lots of damage. This movie does that very well. It will also be for the nonstop excitement in a number of scenes, including the thrilling runaway streetcar. And the suspense of wondering if Det. Fisher can complete each challenge in time, breaking all the rules along the way. He has so many challenges and each one just leads to another one, equally impossible.

Sure, we've seen this sort of thing before, but if I enjoy the formula, so what?

But this movie isn't without problems. Aidan Gillen didn't quite reach the point of being deliciously evil, though the potential was there and he achieved what I hoped for in a few scenes.

And some of the writing was pretty bad. Cops are supposed to be smarter than this. FBI agents are supposed to be smarter too. One of the movie's final scenes had some of the most pathetic writing imaginable. But that's just the dialogue. The action in that scene was great.

I was disappointed to see Steve Harris from the critically acclaimed "Awake" in this. He didn't add much. And by the way, that's not him asleep in that streetcar. I couldn't understand what he was doing there, given the urgency of the situation.

With all the killing that takes place, the violence isn't graphic. You know people die, but you don't see the blood.

I particularly liked scenes with Danny and Molly together when not trying to stay alive. One highlight is Molly trying to repair the plumbing and I'm not talking about her mechanical skills. These scenes had some funny lines, and as terrible as certain events were, the movie's last line was really funny.

It was ... interesting.

As you may or may not know John Cena's film '12 Rounds' was released in Australia on the 19th of March.

Just got home from seeing it and i have to say it was great. Good, solid movie all the way through. Having Renny Harlin as director obviously helped make this a much better effort than previous WWE films. Don't want to give away too much cause i really think people will actually like this movie and that they should go see it. Good cast - Brain J White was by far the stand out. But I have to say John's performance was so much better this time around and you really can notice a difference between his acting ability in '12 Rounds' and 'The Marine'. He's not as tense and you can actually believe what he's saying. There are little tiny things (maybe like 2 moments in the film) that your like 'as if that could really happen' but the story keeps you too focused to really care.

If you like car chases, you'll like this. If you like John Cena, you'll like this. If you like a little Drama/Romance (Ladies?), you'll like this.

Go see it, I swear you'll be surprised.

John Cena, who should stick to the wrestling ring, does in 12 ROUNDS what boils down to a reprise of his character from THE MARINE. The plot is also the same, which has Cena once again chasing after his kidnapped wife. The actress playing the wife even looks like the wife from THE MARINE. The only difference is this time, Cena must match wits with an IRA type who puts Cena through a series of improbable tasks to save her. The film is of the shaky camera and CGI variety, and it frankly isn't as heart-pounding as THE MARINE. This is partly because we've seen it all before, and because the tasks Cena must undertake are completely unbelievable. Plus the acting is sub par. The flick also is highly derivative of past flicks like DIE HARD, PHONE BOOTH, DIRTY HARRY, CELL PHONE and LETHAL WEAPON, among others.

this very enjoyable action flick by renny harlin has opened in Australia with little fanfare. it a shame for it has all the ingeedance of a box office hit, good action,good plot,fast pace and a no brainer.

12 rounds moves at a hell of a pace which is great because if you think about it to long its just plain stupid.but it does, so you don't care well that is if you are a action junkie, and i guess you are or you would not be reading.

its good to see renny back on the big screen doing what he does best blowing stuff up.he made the better pirate movie in my option. so sit back relax put your mind in neutral and let the fun begin.