Walking Tall

Walking Tall is a remake of the 1973 film, which is in turn a "semi-biopic" of Sheriff Buford Pusser. Ironically enough, Pusser was a former professional wrestler-turned lawman in McNairy County, Tennessee. For those of you keeping track, the Buford Pusser was renamed to Chris Vaughn (in the world of macho movies, this is understandable) and his background was changed from wrestling to Special Forces. Which is funny, because Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who plays the role of Vaughn, is a former professional wrestler turned actor.

In this action movie, Vaughn returns to his hometown of Kitsap County, Washington (instead of Pusser's actual McNairy County, Tennessee) from a stint in the Special Forces. We're not sure what Vaughn did, but it must have been ugly, because he never speaks about it and answers questions about people he killed with a sad stare. Unfortunately, Kitsap County has gone downhill since the local lumber mill closed. His father, Vaughn Sr. (John Beasley) is out of work. Vaughn's sister Michelle (Kristen Wilson) has become a cop, but her son Pete (Khleo Thomas) hangs out with the wrong crowd. Heck, even Vaughn's old girlfriend Deni (Ashley Scott) has become a stripper. All these sins can be blamed on Vaughn's old high school rival, Jay Hamilton (played with sneering arrogance by Neal McDonough).

Vaughn's return is cause for celebration by his friends, including the recovering alcoholic Ray (Johnny Knoxville, of all people), who treat him to a night of gambling and debauchery at Hamilton's premiere casino. But the whole place is dirty, where gamblers cheat and drugs are given to kids. It's at this point that Walking Tall flirts with cartoonish levels of evil. Even Hamilton points this out: "Why would I sell drugs when I own the entire town already?" Why indeed?

Vaughn goes nuts once he discovers that the place is corrupt, and his fisticuffs earn him a form of vicious revenge from the security staff that involves a box cutter and a lot of cutaway scenes of Vaughn screaming. Left to die, he manages to recover on his parents' sofa. The sheriff (Michael Bowen) and his deputies are obviously in Hamilton's pocket and refuse to help. When Vaughn's nephew overdoses on drugs gained from Hamilton's casino, Vaughn's had enough: he takes a four-foot hickory club and smashes the place up. That's just the first half of the movie.

Returning to reality, Vaughn's outburst causes him to be brought up on several charges, brought by the very people who cut him up the first time. Vaughn wins the case by appealing to squeamishness of the jury, who wince once he shows them the scars from the box cutter. "If you acquit me of these charges, I'll run for sheriff!" he shouts. And they do. And he does. What happens next is a good old-fashioned butt-whupping from a big man with a big stick.

I didn't expect much from an action movie headlined by a wrestler, but Walking Tall distinguishes itself in several ways that make it worth watching:

IT'S MULTIETHNIC: Vaughn's father is black, his mother is white; Vaughn's girlfriend is white. The movie doesn't make a big deal about it.

IT KNOWS ITS LIMITATIONS: The Rock is huge. This obvious fact is used against Vaughn when he's on trial, as the poor, beat-up thugs make him out to be a monster. And he sort of is...he's just a monster you want on your side. Ray is both pathetic and amusing, but mostly pathetic, as only Knoxville can play him.

IT UNABASHEDLY LOVES ACTION: This movie is about good guys beating up bad guys. Although Vaughn's Special Forces training is curiously absent from most of the film, he does get into fistfights and gunfights with everybody. The fighting is fast and furious but never overtly cinematic. There are lots of thuds, grunts, and crunches.

I like The Rock. He's handsome and sleek in a way that other muscle-bound stars are not, conveying both strength and speed. He doesn't come off as a brutal thug by just looking at him, unless he's standing next to someone else. And because Johnson is famous for arching his eyebrow in ironic "am I for real or what?" pose, he's able to pull off comedy by standing next to someone considerably smaller, like Knoxville.

Walking Tall has both heart and muscle, a feel-good tale about a tough guy who stands up for his hometown in an era when nobody seems to be standing up for anything anymore.