Wrestler turned action movie star, John Cena, sure does have a rough time when it comes to women. The guy's only done two movies, and both times they've centered around some deranged criminal snatching his wife and/or girlfriend. His previous film, The Marine, featured Cena as a human tank hunting down a small group of criminals who blew up a gas station and drove off with his wife. In 12 Rounds, Cena is featured as a human tank hunting down an international terrorist who blows up Cena's house and takes off with his girlfriend. See the difference?

Actually, there's a big difference in that 12 Rounds is a much better movie. Faint praise to be sure, as anyone who has seen The Marine can probably agree with. The movie has been produced by the WWE's film division, and is also probably the best film to come out of their production company. Once again, faint praise for anyone who has seen See No Evil, The Condemned, and other movies that I've done my best to block out of my memory. I'm not recommending the film, as it's a little too generic and similar to the movies it shamelessly mimics (mainly the Die Hard and Speed films). It does, however, allow John Cena to stretch his acting muscles ever so slightly. It's a blink and you miss it moment to be sure, but he's actually allowed to grimace at one point in order to show pain. This is a step up from his last movie, where he was portrayed practically as a human Terminator, able to merely walk out of burning buildings without a single scratch, burn, or singe on his body. Maybe they'll let him limp in the next movie.

Recapping the plot to a movie like this is probably an exercise in futility, but here goes - Cena's a police detective in New Orleans named Danny Fisher, who shot to fame a year ago when he managed to single handedly subdue and capture a terrorist named Miles Jackson (Aidan Gillen). During the capture, Miles' girlfriend and partner in crime (Taylor Cole) was killed when she was hit by a car during her escape attempt. Miles blamed Danny, and swore vengeance. Now Miles has escaped from prison, and in a very short matter of time, has rigged Danny's house to blow up, kidnapped his girlfriend Molly (Ashley Scott), and has set up a series of 12 different "games" and challenges all over the city that Danny must figure out and complete if he wants to keep Molly alive. He leaves clues and riddles all over the city for Danny to find, and also leaves cryptic hints during conversations over the phone. I loved it how Miles was so confident in his plan, he made no effort whatsoever to hide what he was doing. He openly talks about his terrorist actions in public places like busses and busy street corners, surrounded by people who don't even seem to notice the shadowy looking guy talking about bombs going off sitting in the bus seat right next to them.

I'll admit, I didn't have very high expectations walking into 12 Rounds, and the movie surprised me by being merely mediocre instead of terrible. There's nothing special about it. Cena makes for a passable action hero when he's running around, chasing bombs, and driving runaway fire trucks down crowded streets, but whenever he's required to share a scene of dialogue with one of his co-stars, he doesn't seem all that comfortable. The movie understands this, and gives him as little human contact as possible, except to move the plot along or introduce the next challenge he must face. For something built solely around non-stop action, there are surprisingly very few action sequences that manage to stand out. The only one worth mentioning is a scene involving a runaway streetcar filled with passengers that's set to plow into a street carnival. It's notable not only because it's somewhat exciting , but it's also one of the few scenes in the movie that takes advantage of its New Orleans setting. Aside from that, the movie could have been set in any major city and it wouldn't have made a difference. (The script is nice enough to throw in a mention or two of Hurricane Katrina, though.)

Everything else about the movie is pretty average. The villain's not very memorable, and seems like he's trying to be like one of the bad guys of the Die Hard films, but knows deep inside that he just doesn't cut it. Ashley Scott makes for a passable woman in distress, but the movie never spends enough time for us to get attached to her. The total amount of time she gets to spend with John Cena is probably less than 10 minutes, so we never really get a sense of their relationship. What we do have are a string of stunts and action sequences that may not stand out, but get the job done enough. Director Renny Harlin (The Covenant) keeps the pace moving at least. He knows that this is a big, dumb movie, and gives us what we expect. No more, no less. At the very least, the action is easy enough to follow. Aside from the final confrontation that gets a little jumbled due to the confined space it takes place in, there are few cases of the infamous "shaky cam" or jumpy editing.

12 Rounds is still not enough to convince me that Cena should be making movies, though. He doesn't have half the charisma or screen presence of fellow former wrestler, Dwayne Johnson. Of course, in order to show he had some, he'd have to play a character who was required to do more than run around and glare on cue. Even John McClane in the Die Hard films gets to show a sense of humor. You get the sense that if Cena's character tried to tell a joke, he'd shuffle his feet uncomfortably, sputter out a few words, then run off. Probably to punch somebody.

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