WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE [2004] The Rock ; Rated 12A

It still remains to be seen whether or not The Rock will turn out to be the big movie star some say he his destined to become, but 'Welcome to the Jungle' does give him another half descent credit to slap on his résumé. In a nutshell, The Rock plays Beck, a head hunter contracted to perform one last retrieval operation. A job that sees him chasing after Travis (Sean William Scott), the son of his contractor. Sufficed it to say, the plot is a bit of a no brainier, but thanks to some well directed action scenes the film remains for the most part safely above water. The movie zips from one action scene to the next, with comedy scenes filling in any gaps that might appear. Christopher Walken is fine, but quite clearly just going through the motions, putting out just enough charisma to warrant his pay cheque. On the plus side, the wise cracking put downs from Sean William Scott do work quite effectively when paired with the The Rock's broody (at least on the surface) persona. Also, to give The Rock credit, he is probably the only actor who at least makes an effort to push his character out of the two dimensional realm all the others reside in. All in all the film does show promise for its rather pumped up lead, but on the flip side it also indicates a sagging career for Sean William Scott. So really the movie only serves to showcase two things, The Rock's potential, and the fact that another nail has firmly been hammered into the career coffin of the once king of gross out teen comedy, Mr. Stiffler himself. The film as an entity in its own right is completely harmless with a well orchestrated final act. But it is hardly anything more than Friday night fodder for the big bang popcorn lovin' action junkies. It really should have been just a two star film, but because it boasts an early cameo appearance by Arnie, it gets pumped up to three (if you excuse the pun). If you've got nothing better to do...

3/5