Rundown, The

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Once in the jungle they have all sorts of harrowing adventures, and I enjoyed it that real things were happening, that we were not simply looking at shoot-outs and chases, but at intriguing and daring enterprise.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

There've been dozens of shotgun movies, most of them directed by Sam Peckinpah ("The Wild Bunch," "The Getaway") but Berg is inventive...All this, and Christopher Walken too? What more could a fella ask for?

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Surprisingly airy, jungle-set adventure, boisterously winking at Huston, Peckinpah and the same Saturday-morning serials that birthed Indiana Jones. R.J. Stewart and James Vanderbilt's tongue-in-cheek script, a hybridization of "Midnight Run" and "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," provides lots of amusing byplay for its two mismatched stars.

Entertainment Weekly Scott Brown

The Rundown is actually a lot of fun, mostly because The Rock, simply by standing there and being The Rock, cancels out Scott entirely.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Has what we usually want to see in movies like this: bravura action, tongue-in-cheek humor, but most of all attitude.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Quite a bit of fun. In fact, in its own good-natured, silly way, it works better than most of the year's other adventure-gutbusters.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Offers everything a good movie of this sort should: plenty of suspenseful action, a few good laughs, and a share of obligatory "reluctant buddy" bonding.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

An action-adventure flick that could turn into this generation's "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The screenplay is laced with wit and sharp dialogue, and the supporting cast more than makes up for Johnson's inexperience and occasional stiffness.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The action sequences are novel, the performances are slightly askew, and the camera work is vigorous and mostly effective.

Premiere Susannah Gora

Surprisingly clever, high-energy adventure (director Peter Berg should be proud).

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

There's no doubt, though, that The Rundown will be a crowd-pleaser, despite a forgettable title and lots of roughness around the production's edges. It's a comedy-adventure with a frivolous soul.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Turns out he's infinitely more likable than Vin Diesel, who carries his sense of stardom through every movie like an insufferable Atlas. In fact, Dwayne Johnson is a gentleman, the kind of Rock who puts you in a very easy place.

The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden

Those not in the smackdown frame of mind will find an overabundance of head-butts, body slams and pounding aural effects -- this is a definite contender for loudest film of the year -- but also will discover instances of innovative, spectacular stuntwork and, though the comic interplay often falls flat, a story with heart.

Newsweek David Ansen

The Rock and Scott work up some nice comic chemistry, but it’s the dependably warped Walken who steals the most scenes. The frenetically edited fight sequences will satisfy the blood lust of the target audience.

Variety Lael Loewenstein

Cements the Rock's status as a contempo action hero with a bigscreen future.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

Johnson, who was computer-generated in "Mummy" and only looked it in "Scorpion King," keeps it engaging, displaying a comedic knack first revealed during his Saturday Night Live appearance in 2000; he has the timing of a Rolex, even when playing straight man to American Pie's Stifler.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

It's fun, albeit a little messy, under the frequently punchy direction of Peter Berg.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Comes on like a runaway Humvee.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

An amiable action-comedy, amiable enough that the laughs come in a steady drizzle if not a torrent, and that the action is something blissfully less than the usual full-out assault on our battered senses.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Doesn't break any new ground, but it doesn't leave you wishing you had stayed home, either. Considering the state of action movies today, that's something.

Slate Michael Agger

Aggressively adolescent. It hearkens back to the time in a young man's life when humping monkeys were funny, when a promise didn't count if your fingers were crossed, when debating pointless hypothetical questions held a fascination, and when professional wrestling offered endless, senseless entertainment.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

For a mountain of muscle [The Rock]'s a surprisingly charming screen presence. And his low-key appeal helps nudge Peter Berg's derivative but good-natured light action picture in the direction of breezy entertainment, rather than painfully noisy macho posturing.

Film Threat David Grove

Is he (Rock) the next big thing? After seeing The Rundown, one of the most joyfully silly genre films in recent history, he has my vote.

USA Today Staff (Not Credited)

By nature, the character (Rock) is as gentle and affable as this Amazonian adventure is -- a yarn complete with an oddball robber baron, pro football linemen, Type-A monkeys and hallucinogenic fruit.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Add Christopher Walken, giving one of his patented demented performances as a Kurtz-esque mining tycoon deep in the Amazon jungle, along with some vague Hollywood politics about labor exploitation, and The Rundown is far too cheerful and good-hearted to be terrible.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

The Rock deserves better than The Rundown, a brisk, good- hearted but predictable and uninspired - not to mention bone-crunchingly violent - action comedy.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

This is basically a 10th-tier rehash of the Indiana Jones genre, laced with moments that are actually clever and exciting. Dawson is alluring, Scott is smug and bratty, Walken is terrific, and The Rock is, well, The Rock.

Philadelphia Inquirer David Hiltbrand

Somehow the star emerges from this mess smelling like pure testosterone. You can't stop the Rock.

The New York Times Dave Kehr

The director, Peter Berg ("Very Bad Things"), keeps the predictable story line on course without developing a truly compelling momentum in the action sequences or finding anything fresh in the interaction of the stock characters.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The Rock has a flair for action and comedy; he's a real movie star.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

For much of the film, Berg is content to act like a Michael Bay wannabe, orchestrating large action set pieces that get increasingly tiresome and WWE-like as individuals get mindlessly slammed into the dust.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Peter Berg directs the action sequences cleverly at first. Then he starts to behave as though a hornet flew down his pants at the instant he aimed the camera. He's not much of a dialogue director, but there's not much dialogue.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

The result rises to the level of mediocrity thanks largely to the magnetic presence of The Rock, who's made a smooth transition from professional wrestling to leading-man status with this and "The Scorpion King."

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Like rocky road ice cream, The Rundown is chunky stuff, full of calories and easy to take in small doses. Also like rocky road, it’s bound to attract flies if you leave it lying around, and, more to the point, too much of it is likely to make you gag.

Village Voice Mark Holcomb

To call this action gambit formulaic is to sell it short: The Rundown runs down more formulas than a month's worth of complimentary premium cable service.