12 Rounds
In the grand scheme of good versus evil cinema, there are two types of villains: the physical threat and the mental threat. The villain in the new action flick 12 Rounds is entirely of the latter type. As played by an eager Aidan Gillen, master thief Miles Jackson is a genius with a devilish grin. We know that Miles is smart right from the start, because the movie's opening features a moment in which Miles takes a brief break from his planned criminal activity to offer some quick chess advice to two players on the street. He is a smart villain, but Gillen's performance is so desperate and unconvincingly slimy that the character is never as intimidating as he is meant to be. If Miles was all 12 Rounds had to offer, then it would be safe to call this action-packed movie a run-of-the-mill retread. But thankfully, Miles' adversary is police officer Danny Fisher, who proves to be a far more interesting hero than Miles is a villain.
Danny is played by wrestler-turned-actor John Cena, who balances his unmistakably brawny presence with a surprisingly kind-hearted attitude. Danny is such a nice guy that he even offers an honest apology after accidentally crushing a civilian's car with a fire truck. This is the kind of hero who never forgets his manners, no matter how stressful and dangerous his day has become. And for the majority of 12 Rounds' 108-minute running time, Danny is subjected to a very bad day. The movie begins with a big, elaborate sequence in which Danny foils Miles' plan to escape with a fortune in stolen diamonds. In the midst of the chaotic arrest, Miles' girlfriend is hit by a vehicle and killed instantly. Before being dragged off to prison, Miles vows to get even with Danny.
From that point on, the story launches a year into the future to find Danny reaping the benefits of the fateful night that he caught Miles. Danny and his partner received cushy promotions following that particular arrest and now they spend their time playing pool in bars. But Danny is a really nice guy, so he still has regrets about how that night resulted in the death of Miles' girlfriend. With all of this standard exposition out of the way, it's time for Danny's day to take a dive. Before long, he receives an ominous phone call from Miles, who has escaped from prison and is now planning to take his revenge on Danny by challenging the hulking hero to an explosive game of cat-and-mouse. The game has 12 rounds, each with clues that Danny has to follow and acts of heroism that Danny has to perform.
Once the wheels of the plot get moving, director Renny Harlin keeps the narrative moving forward at a breakneck pace. Harlin is no stranger to this type of material, having directed such boisterous entertainment as Die Hard 2 (the best of the John McClane sequels) and Cliffhanger (one of the better Stallone movies to not feature either Rocky Balboa or John Rambo). But that version of Harlin existed nearly 20 years ago at the peak of his career. Since then, he has directed such box office bombs as Cutthroat Island and The Long Kiss Goodnight and such dopey nonsense as the Formula 1 race car picture Driven (starring a washed-up version of Stallone).
Most recently, Harlin has toiled in the depths of the Hollywood studio system, making moderately budgeted movies that turn an acceptable profit. It is unlikely that Harlin will ever return to the upper echelon of action-based blockbuster directors (some might even argue that he was never really there at all), but there is a distinct pleasure in watching an action veteran like Harlin capture old-fashioned thrills on the big screen. 12 Rounds is a genuine throwback to 80s action and a time when stunts and pyrotechnics were not supported by flashy digital effects.
12 Rounds does not offer anything new. In fact, it does the complete opposite by specifically offering something old. With its lean, mean pace and gigantic hero sporting a heart of gold, it has more in common with the early movies of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone than it does with the frantically edited Jason Bourne movies that represent a 21st century style of action cinema. 12 Rounds may have just hit movie screens for the first time in 2009, but it already feels like a relic.
The combination of Harlin's beefy direction and Cena's effortless presence proves to be just the right ingredients for a movie that would have gone completely off the rails without their involvement. Anyone who enjoys energized action movies has certainly seen many movies like 12 Rounds before, but Cena's confident mixture of brains and brawn give this particular action flick an identity all its own, using the new to celebrate the old.
