V-O-S Reviews film "12 ROUNDS"
by V-O-S
Tuesday Sep 8, 2009

"12 ROUNDS" [Extreme Cut] -- A Series of Revenge-based Puzzles leads to ACTION bliss =

Rating: 8 of 10 stars (based on the "Unrated" version on the DVD).

Director Rennie Harlin has a history of making impressive "chase"-type films ("Die Hard 2", "Cleaner", etc.). This new film suffered from various things-- a poor TITLE (which made it sound like it was about BOXING, which it has nothing to do with), limited promotion, etc. To my surprise, it turned out to be a really FINE action film (that’ll leave you nearly open-mouthed" in fascination), with near-nonstop energy and an unusually well-done Director’s COMMENTARY which gives loads of interesting and helpful comments about the making of the project:

New Orleans Detective Danny Fisher (played by wrestler JOHN CENA) joins others in chasing after crook Miles Jackson (AIDAN GILLEN), which accidentally causes the death of Aidan’s girlfriend. Aidan seeks revenge for that after escaping from jail, bent on hurting John as much as possible while he creates what is in-effect a "cover" for his REAL agenda. Highly-calculating Aidan kidnaps John’s girlfriend Molly (ASHLEY SCOTT) and demands that John race around the city on time-deadline activities to solve 12 hidden-clue "PUZZLES" in order to find the next "clue" which may help him get his girlfriend (& others) returned alive.

The 12 "challenges" involve John’s having to SAVE the LIVES of various innocent people including his brother, people on a bus, a portly man in an old elevator, etc. That requires a series of breathless CAR CHASES, explosions, chasing a ferry boat, a runaway TROLLEY CAR, etc. While John hasn’t yet developed a very "expressive" personna, he’s amply believable as a stoic "never give up" cop, especially in the way he does almost all his OWN stunts including the dangerous driving. The others around him (such as BRIAN WHITE as his partner Hank and STEVE HARRIS as pushy FBI Special Agent George Aiken) effectively add to the stirring of the "pot[-boiler]" cycles of conflict...

As I indicated, I was also quite impressed by Harlin’s director’s COMMENTARY: He’s very well-organized, informative and interesting in the way he explains how the film (originally scheduled to be set in Chicago) came to be set in New Orleans, how he became involved with the project, + complimenting & sincerely THANKING specific members of the cast & also the CREW (including Trevor Rabin who worked on the score) for their hard work on the 51-day shoot. At the end, he even gives info on his own WEB-SITE, & urges people to feel free to offer their "feedback" on the film.

Harlin explains how, to achieve a "documentary"-type look & feel for the film, he purposely used mainly three HAND-HELD cameras on all shots (to give a variety of views), often filmed inside various VANS & in actual locations (rather than use green-screen effects on various stages), and tried to always have people in a state of "movement" rather than just standing or sitting around.

Also, he used the actors to often do their OWN stunts to give a more "real" look to the film. He tells how John Cena didn’t enjoy working at great heights, but LOVED doing his own driving (since he’s devoted to & owns a number of "muscle" cars). There are a bunch of "small" details, such as "homages" to his home country of Finland, & having John devoted to a pet pug dog in order to help the audience feel he’s a "worthwhile" character.

The story is set-up to in-effect play-out over a period of 5-6 hours in a single day, and, while Harlin shot the film in a "very aggressive" way, he purposely worked to AVOID a bunch of on-screen blood-letting (as opposed to concentrating on the general effects of the chases & explosions & the like, without showing the personal mayhem they may have caused). Further, John is purposely NOT set-up as a "super-hero", but instead as a "BELIEVABLE" cop who’s working super-hard within his own normal abilities to try to save people he cares about.

Besides holding both the Theatrical & Unrated versions of the [20th Century Fox] film, the DVD also has 2 "Alternate" endings, a separate film commentary by John Cena & the writer Daniel Kunka, a featurette on stunts, a gag real, etc. I was really SURPRISED by the overall "non-stop" QUALITY of the action in the film, & recommend it as an "unexpected" discovery & treat.