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WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE AKA THE RUNDOWN
***1/2 out of *****
 Genres
2003
Directed by Peter Berg Written by R.J. Stewart (story) R.J. Stewart and James Vanderbilt (screenplay) Cast The Rock .... Beck Seann William Scott .... Travis Rosario Dawson .... Mariana Christopher Walken .... Hatcher Ewen Bremner .... Declan Jon Gries .... Harvey William Lucking .... Walker Ernie Reyes Jr. .... Manito Stuart F. Wilson .... Swenson Dennis Keiffer .... Naylor Garrett Warren .... Henshaw Toby Holguin .... Head Indian Tracker
 | Being handcuffed around cows has
never ended well. | Buddy movies are not a new concept, Hollywood has been making them for a long time now. From Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy to more recent team-ups such as Eddie Murphy and Judge Reinhold in the Beverly Hills Cop series, Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon and, of course, Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker in the Rush Hour films. And now we have a new addition to the buddy film genre thanks to actor-turned-director Peter Berg. Welcome to the Jungle (or as it’s otherwise known, The Rundown) with American Pie’s Seann William Scott and the biggest thing in wrestling, the most electrifying man in sports entertainment, The Rock (or just Dwayne Johnson to his friends).
The Rock plays Beck, an aspiring chef who dreams of one day opening a small restaurant but lives working as a retrieval expert under the thumb of mob boss Billy Walker (William Lucking). Beck wants out of the business once and for all and decides to take one last job. Once completed Billy will grant Beck his freedom from the retrieval business. All he has to do is go to El Dorado, Brazil, and bring Billy’s son Travis (Seann William Scott) back to L.A. This tasks proves easier said than done, as Beck has to deal with Declan (Ewan Bremner) a crazy pilot, the iron-fisted slave driver Hatcher (played to over-the-top perfection by Christopher Walken), a bunch of pygmy warriors, and a relentless jungle.
 | | Before ECW went bankrupt... | Having landed in El Dorado and just after having struck a deal with Hatcher, Beck finds Travis in a local bar attended by a local woman Mariana (Rosario Dawson). He secures his catch but Hatcher and his men get wind of a rumour that Travis has located a sacred and valuable artefact and decides to go against the accord he agreed upon with Beck and will not allow Travis to leave Brazil until he has the location of the treasure. This new development does not sit well with Beck. Having confronted and beaten Hatcher’s men, Beck and Travis make their way back to the airstrip and hopefully out of the godforsaken jungle, but when Travis causes their car to careen off the site of a cliff, he and Beck are stuck in the jungle and must find their way out before Hatcher’s men find them first.
After having seen the rather awful Scorpion King, I was hoping that The Rock was just a fad that would die away within a year. He didn’t really strike me as the kind of person that could carry an entire movie. I was wrong, he can with a little help from the very funny Seann William Scott. You see, buddy films are an interesting breed of genre, because you can have an outrageous plot, over the top characters, and ridiculous situations that ask the audience to suspend their disbelief longer than most films ask you to. Which sometimes is a hard sell but one thing and one thing only can save a buddy film from just being a lame over the top flop, good casting. If the chemistry is right and the actors are having fun with their characters to the point that it literally draws you into the film, that’s when the audience is ready to accept a hell of a lot. And this film, I’m happy to report does exactly that, almost all of the funniest moments of the film are shared between these two and to add to the excitement the action set pieces are thrilling to watch, especially the pygmy fight sequence and the final showdown with Hatcher. When you have Jackie Chan’s fight choreographer Andy Cheng on your side then you can expect some great fight sequences. This combination almost makes you forget the paper-thin plot, but if you’re in for a fun ride with lots of laughs, great characters and a lot of cool action then Welcome to the Jungle will deliver exactly that. This film is definitely recommended. Finger_Of_DOOM's reviews also appear on DVD Compare, where they include details of the DVD release. For this review click here.
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