12 Rounds (2009)

[Movie 282 / Day 301]

A generic cop thriller, 12 ROUNDS follows Detective Danny Fisher (WWE wrestler John Cena) as he is taunted into playing deadly games with an Irish terrorist, Miles Jackson (Aidan Gillen). Fisher did what the entire might of the FBI couldn’t and, after an implausible chase where Fisher is on foot and Jackson in a BMW, arrested the killer. Now, a year later, Jackson has escaped from prison and is out for revenge. He kidnaps Fisher’s girlfriend, Molly, and makes Danny complete 12 rounds of tasks in order to get her back.

Unfortunately, the movie is nothing new. The FBI agents are cookie-cutter versions of those found in just about every cop thriller, one good and wanting to help Fisher and one nasty and seemingly going out of his way to hinder Fisher. Until he has an obvious change of heart and remembers why he’s chasing Jackson in the first place, then he’s all for helping Fisher as much as possible. Jackson seems to be a pastiche of several mad bombers from the last 20 years of Hollywood but just isn’t menacing enough. Fisher’s partner and best friend, Hank Carver, is that worst kind of buddy cop, the patsy who is clearly destined to be killed by Jackson from the outset.

It literally has no stand-out moments. The plot is predictable; the acting average at best, plain terrible at worst (Cena is a pretty wooden leading man); the special effects are OK but par for the course… Watch it if it’s on TV and SPEED isn’t.

My Rating:
[ IMDB rating: 5.4 / 10 | IMDB link | Running time: 108 mins ]