Rock star

An amusing “blink-and-you’ll-miss-it” cameo (by a certain Austrian actor/politician) toward the start of director Peter Berg’s new bone-cruncher pretty much makes official that the primary action movie star torch has been passed and The Rock is the new bearer of the flame. Affable and self-deprecating (and best of all, coherent), The Rock is The Man.

Here he plays Beck, a gun-loathing enforcer for a Los Angeles mobster who’s coerced into embarking on “one last job” before he retires to open up a restaurant and relax to the quiet life. His job: retrieve the boss’ wayward son (Sean William Scott) from the jungles of Brazil and bring him back to the Hills of Beverly.

Of course, this being an action movie, there’s a catch: This particular heart of darkness is owned by a ruthless mine-owner (Christopher Walken) who doesn’t particularly appreciate some random hulk arriving to shake up the comfortable order of things. Well, comfortable for him. The locals have dubbed the company town Hell Dorado, and they live the hand-to-mouth existences that company towns foster. So of course there are rebels lurking on the fringes. And a pretty bar owner (Rosario Dawson) who isn’t quite what she seems. And an ancient golden idol to be recovered. Soon, things get loud and flashy, culminating in a climax that would do Sergio Leone proud. Goofy in a hyper-violent way, this big, dumb fun vehicle delivers.