What actor in Hollywood is so large and muscled up that he requires an intense military or NFL career back story just to explain how large he is? “Can you smellllllllllllll what the ROOOOCCCCCKKKKKK ISSS COOKING!?” With Jumanji: The Next Level premiering this weekend, we are looking back on the best movies featuring The Rock.
The disaster film sub-genre is overflowing with tons of forgettable entries. Rescue Chopper Pilot, Raymond Gaines will have to navigate across the country with his ex-wife Emma in order to save his daughter after a massive earthquake. Johnson as the title character Raymond, is a breath of fresh air in the genre with his charisma and presence in this film. He is very believable and comes across capable in everything that he is able to accomplish in the film. His opening sequence gives the viewer all the reassurance needed to let you know he is well equipped to handle the harrowing situations he will be put in. At the same time he is a protagonist with vulnerabilities and a past traumatic incident that adds depth to his overall character. He is a good man that hasn’t been able to get over something that would break the strongest person down to their core. You get a great sense of who these people are that only adds to you caring about them more throughout the runtime. Carla Gugino as his ex-wife Emma is very strong in her own right and is in the thick of it every inch of the way. They play really well of each other and provide the symbiosis needed to keep you interested in the story when there are moments of downtime. The film delivers on disaster portions of the film very nicely. Earth trembling, skyscraper shattering, and adrenaline inducing moments provide an excellent movie experience for viewers who are in the mood to see destruction on a major scale. Being a California Resident and working in San Francisco for a number of years, it was quite the experience to see parts of San Francisco that I have visited and worked replicated in great detail. San Andreas blends interesting characters with grand spectacle for a winning recipe for disaster in the best ways possible. (Joseph Vargas)
What is the most terrifying way to start a film? Start your film with a naked teenager, who is completely naked, dancing in the shower with Dwayne Johnson’s face poorly CGI’ed onto his face! Once you get past that grotesque imagery, Central Intelligence turns out to be a silly fun time. Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart have some great chemistry that can elevate an okay action-comedy into an enjoyable film worth the time. Dwayne Johnson plays a strange character who is a super nerd who loves his fanny pack and his Bronny t-shirts. Just imagine…the biggest nerd you knew from high school. They probably played D&D every weekend. They knew all the songs from My Little Pony. And then they disappear for 20 years only to reappear as The Rock! That is the basic plot of Central Intelligence. Oh wait…did I forget to mention that he is also a dangerous trained spy? Oh yes, he is that too. Kevin Hart though…is an accountant! Do you want a fun evening to just enjoy some laughs and The Rock’s muscles? Check out Central Intelligence! (Shane Conto)
When people see the Rock’s face on a movie poster there are typically two different group’s of people with opinions: 1. “Yeah! The Rock! This will be fun!” 2. “Great, another dumb movie”. Typically the second group is right to a degree but this is one of those moments that they should put their cynicism aside and just enjoy a fun action flick. The movie actually evokes some tension, Neve Campbell is given things to do and the visuals are better than expected. Could you boil this down to “just another Rock action movie”? Sure, if you just look at the surface. But if you give this a shot, you might see it rises above the “Rampages” of the world. (Blake Hodges)
When most people think about Micheal Bay, they think of Transformers, Bad Boys, or The Rock. They also think of mind numbing action, explosions that look like fire works, and often the not so good character work he does in his movies. I, however, have a big soft spot for Micheal Bay. While his movies won’t win Oscars, I find myself often enjoying his filmography. He’s the movie equivalent to cotton candy: nothing healthy or nutritious about it, but very tasty and fun to eat nonetheless. However there is one movie to me that sticks out as his best directed film to date: Pain and Gain. Based on a true story, Pain and Gain follows a group of muscle bound douchebags that kidnap and rob a man of his entire wealth. It’s fast paced, engaging, and he’s able to direct The Rock to his best performance to date. Up to this point, I thought The Rock was a serviceable actor, but not someone who could blow you away. He proved me wrong in Pain and Gain by going against type and playing someone who’s easily gullible and easy to manipulate. This is one of my favorite films of 2013, and I’ll defend it to this very day. (Ben Davis)
Sometimes it’s fun just to watch fun people do fun things, and Get Smart is one of those times. Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway are a blast here in a movie that provides action, laughs, and most of all smiles even if the plot is a bit convoluted. You may not walk away thinking this is one of the best movies you’ve ever seen, but I’m also guessing you won’t walk away upset you spent a couple hours of your life having this much fun. (Aaron Dicer)
Even though you can watch almost the entirety of The Rock’s screentime in The Other Guys in a video 2:10 long on YouTube, it’s still one of the funniest scenes in an already hilarious movie. Looking back, this movie is really a turning point in his acting career. Up to this point, he had mostly done movies for kids, but since then, Dwayne Johnson has become a box office sensation as an action star. As for the movie itself, The Rock’s presence looms over the entire story, as he is the reason Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg’s characters are put in the positions they are in. It’s the classic story of two completely different people overcoming what separates them to come together and accomplish a task. The story, though, isn’t tired. Instead it’s full of laughs, action, and lines that are perfect for being quoted over and over in a college dorm (speaking from experience). (Robert Bouffard)
Back in February, writer-director Stephen Merchant offered a wonderful blend of humor and emotion in the biographical sports film “Fighting with My Family,” which tells the story of Saraya “Paige” Knight (Florence Pugh), who dreams of becoming a star wrestler in the WWE. Pugh gives a heartfelt performance that marks what has turned out to be an exceptional year for her, displaying all of the grit and heart that makes her character one that will have you cheering. Along with her are some memorable supporting performances from Lena Headey and Nick Frost, who portray her parents, and Jack Lowden, who portrays her brother. However, one of the best performances from the film is one that only lasts a couple of minutes, and that performance comes from Dwayne Johnson, who portrays himself in a scene where he hilariously gives Paige and her brother some advice on how to win over the crowd. In a movie with plenty of laughs, you will find several in this sequence. It’s important that a great sports movie has you care about whichever sport the movie focuses on, especially if you’re not a fan to begin with, and “Fighting with My Family” is one of them. (Vincent Abbatecola)
Doing remakes and reboots nowadays is usually a touchy subject for fans of the original. If you’re not careful, you could get something like Ghostbusters (2016), which wasn’t received well with audiences. But when you do something new and show how you can take something old and tweak it for modern times, you get something as special as Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. After four teens in detention get accidentally sucked into a video game cartridge version of Jumanji, they find themselves in the bodies of four adventurers (Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan) they must work together to save jumanji and exit the game before they end up dead. This is easily one of my favorite comedies of the decade, the pairing of this cast couldn’t be better. I’m not a huge Rock or Kevin Hart fan, but they work so well with what they’re given that I’ve actually started to like them more since this came out. There’s not a single person I know that dislikes this movie, so fingers crossed that the sequel makes the same splash. (Alex Henderson)
“Hell of a Mess.” “Yes it is.” I like to start my BEC choices with a quote from that movie that hopefully accurately depicts how I feel about this movie or how it relates to this topic. In this case, I think I hit the bingpot (shoutout to all my B99 fans). The Fast and Furious franchise is FAR from my favorite. It’s quite a mess. In fact, I think it’s in general very dumb. 1, 3, 4, and 7 don’t do anything for me, 2 and 8 are bad, but at least a fun ride. But 5, 6, and Hobbs and Shaw are MY JAM! I’ve given a lot of thought on this and I think here’s why: Fast Five was a monumental change in the direction of the franchise for four key reasons: 1) The inclusion of “The Rock” which by itself should warrant at least 1 letter grade than a movie sans Dwayne. 2) These movies stop focusing so much on the cars. I’m not a car guy by any means; I pay someone to do it for me, even basic stuff like oil changes that I know the basic components of how to do. 3) This franchise solidified a solid crew that brought back old faces, new ones, and assured us that they would be sticking around and we could experience these stories with all of them together. 4) This is the defining point where the franchise stops taking itself too seriously. Fast Five, 6, and Hobbs and Shaw are my favorite because they are the ones that just have the most fun and Five laid down this glorious foundation of movies that I generally really enjoy now! (Aaron Schweitzer)
Disney has been on quite the streak over the past ten years when it comes to their Animation offerings. Crazy catchy songs, fun side characters, beautiful visuals, and a hero to get behind are a great recipe for success. 2016 was one of the peak years with Disney putting out two great efforts including Zootopia and Moana. Moana gave a young woman, Auli’i Cravalho, an opportunity to lead her own animated feature and she did it so impressively. Moana is one of my favorite animated films in recent years. But why is that? Could it be the pitch perfect vocal cast including the infectiously fun and perfectly cast Dwayne Johnson as Maui? Could it be the ridiculously wonderful songs like the energetic and catchy “You’re Welcome” (performed with much zeal by Johnson) and Bowie-esque and smoothly sinister “Shiny” from the great Jemaine Clement? Could it be the incredibly inspiration journey of our powerful and courageous hero, Moana? How about the striking visuals that are beautiful and engrossing? You know it could even be the adventurous and romping story this film takes you on. In fact it is all of these wonderful features rolled into one fun, charming, inspiring, and beautiful film! (Shane Conto)
Also See:
The Mummy Returns, Walking Tall, Race to Witch Mountain, Snitch, Jem and the Holograms, Rampage