12 Rounds (2009)

This film had no potential. The plot was overused. Kind of felt like a Taken vibe to it. No good performances. Cheap villain. Cheap ending. Nothing much good to this movie. I will say it has a good few scenes. But it was clichéd. Predictable. With nothing for a script.World Wrestling Entertainment really overdid this trilogy. Making 2 garbage sequels (Being worse than this)Slight pros for the film. There are a few scenes that make you feel thrilled at a brief moment. So it is not a 1 star worthy film. But all and all 3/10. Waste of a film.

Renny Harlin directed Die Hard 2 rather apt considering the plot for 12 Rounds borrows elements from its sequel Die Hard with a Vengeance.WWE wrestler John Cena plays a cop who arrested a wanted Irish terrorist and in doing so the bad guy's girlfriend gets run over by a vehicle.The said bad guy escapes prison and takes revenge on Cena by holding his girlfriend hostage and getting him to partake in various tasks if he wants to see her alive again.These 12 Rounds of tasks seem to make no sense at first. Cena has to get to one part of the city to another very quickly and in doing so he tends to hang around fretting and talking to the FBI officers who at first seem to be an obstacle. In fact you wonder why the FBI officers pursuing the terrorist were not on his hit list considering they were more responsible for him being arrested in the first place.Eventually Cena realises that he did once watch Die Hard with a Vengeance and figures that the bad guy may have an ulterior motive in his mission and it may not be just revenge because the tasks Cena has performed had some after effects which left parts of the city vulnerable.Harlin is a frustrating director and has been in a downward spiral for some years. This film has a good budget, some good action scenes and rather watchable despite some duff lines, poor plotting and ludicrous scenes. The finale was rather poor in my opinion but for Cena, at then new to movie action roles this was a decent starring vehicle and he was less wooden here than he was in The Marine.

I wrote this in real time as I watched the movie. Every point is a reason to avoid this movie at all costs. It's the worst thing that I've had the disgrace to watch since This Means War. It's an absolutely horrid cliché fest from beginning to end.MC = main characterWitty dialog between husband and hot wife Outrageously efficient police techVillain is nonchalant about being monitoredVillain easily fakes death, fools policeVillain gets together with hot piece of meatWitty dialog between MC and secondary characterMc plays heroVillain has terrible aim and MC is immune to bulletsInfinite ammoAgainst all odds, MC gets the bad guyMc cares more about wife than he cares about friends and boozeMc argues with wife over petty thing and she says cliché line about disappointmentPREDICTION: Something bad will happen to her - this happenedVillain takes it personal against MC, blows up his house and car, vows to kill wifeMC easily steals sports car, but it's justifiedvillain kidnaps wife instead of killing her, wife becomes damsel in distressPREDICTION: MC rescues wife, they live happily ever after - this happenedWhite cop swings gun around in black neighborhood, doesn't get shotVillain uses riddles as hints, MC easily solves themVillain decides to watch the world burn and torture MC instead of just getting away Best buds 4 life moment between MC and secondary characterHigher ups pull MC back to realityMc is also a fireman!! No oxygen needed though, only coatBOMB DEFUSING TIME!!Mc plays hero... AgainMc drives fireman truck, no permission needed because he's the MC... He destroys everything in his way but it's OK cause BOMBapparently, the MC is more efficient than the FBIvillain goes full SAW, now it's all about solving riddles and getting cluesPREDICTION: "YOU'VE KILLED AN INNOCENT MAN!" - this didn't happen"Keep talking to him so we can get his location"... Doesn't work"No cheating~" says the villain, as he threats to kill MC's wifeMC saves villain from head-shot instead of using villain's dead hand to avoid bomb from explodingMC gets to drive federal vehicle like its no big dealeverything explodes, everything was destroyed, but nobody died so MC saves the day I guess?MC gets cocky with villain and things get harder, color me surprisedvillain kills MC's best bud, but it's OK, he's not his wifes**t goes meta, MC wonders why villain didn't just kill him and his wife when he had the chancePREDICTION: MC will corner villain, villain will break down and give a pathetic speech about love, vengeance and other dumb s**t - this didn't happenVillain replaces high ranked security employee like it was no big deal, gets access to millions of dollars to stealMc's wife gets cocky. Spits on villain's face, despite being at his mercy - Mc's wife knows how to pilot an helicopter, it's easier than a car anywayVillain gets hit by MC's wife and suddenly decides he wants to kill her, just as MC is in place to rescue herMc beats the living s**t out of villain, but he's got the ace of spades, imminent bomb explosion unless they jump from a moving helicopterVillain loss in his own game, MC rescues wife as they safely land on a pool, as money rains over them, they kiss and I'm tired of writing everything wrong with this s***fest of a movie... Wait, the torture is over, credits are rolling! THANK GODI want my neuroses back. By the way, I'm giving it a 1 because of the realistic shock-wave when the house explodes.

If you want to fill almost 2 hours with constant tensions and pace, then you have to think of more than 1-2 events - or you get a Colombo-type of crime movie... However, many of these dodges have been used a lot before, so clichés and repetitions are inevitable. In the movie in question, you realize references to many similar movies, including the ones directed by Renny Harlin himself, but several twists and turns (not always plausible though) make the movie in general catchy to follow. Besides, not everything is anticipated, "good guys" die sometimes too and criminals are not brainless types always behind cops in every way... The ending, however, is trivial and the selection of actors was probably caused by low budget; Aidan Gillen as Miles Jackson is the only decent one, all others are rather uninviting, even the leading actors (John Cena looks like a buff).Thus, 12 Rounds is not among the best action movies, but definitely not among the worst; if you like chases, explosions and shootings and letting your mind rest, then you get a decent entertainment.