Movie Review for Walking Tall

Summary: Chris Vaughn has come home. He’s a retired U.S. Special Forces soldier who has returned to his hometown to renew old relationships and make a new life for himself. But while Chris was away, his boyhood town wasted away to a dilapidated, crime-ridden shell of itself. His wealthy high school rival, Jay Hamilton, has closed the once-prosperous lumber mill--once the area’s largest employer--and has turned the town’s resources towards criminal gains. The place Chris grew up is now overrun with crime, drugs, and violence. Enlisting the help of his old pal Ray Templeton, Chris gets elected sheriff and vows to shut down Hamilton’s operations. His actions endanger his family and threaten his own life, but Chris refuses to back down until his hometown once again feels like home. Chris Vaughn won’t talk softly any longer--and he carries a very big stick.

                         Reviews of Walking Tall
By Mike McGranaghan of Aisle Seat (7/0)
            The reason I can’t recommend Walking Tall is that it fundamentally lacks a sense of outr...

By Phil Villarreal of Arizona Daily Star (7/0)
            The Rock is walking tall as a premier action star.

By Neil Smith of BBC (7/0)
            Although morally dubious and unpleasantly brutal, Kevin Bray's film is a decent enough showcase f...

By Wesley Morris of Boston Globe (7/0)
            ...monotonously by-the-numbers...

By Allison Benedikt of Chicago Tribune (7/0)
            The story is mildly gripping, and the action is fresh and entertaining.

By Stefan Ulstein of Christianity Today (7/0)
            Like the hicksploitation genre from which it was spawned, Walking Tall is long on violence and sh...

                         Reviews of Walking Tall
By Margaret A. McGurk of Cincinnati Enquirer (7/0)
            ...skillfully crafted but dead boring...

By Joshua Tyler of CinemaBlend.com (7/0)
            Does a fantastic job of maximizing “The Rock’s” natural gifts, which lend themselves towards both...

By Harvey S. Karten of Compuserve (7/0)
            Enjoy The Rock until he becomes governor.

By Matt Brunson of Creative Loafing (7/0)
            To actually spend money to see something like this in a theater defies all logic: It's the equiva...

By Jeff Vice of Deseret News, Salt Lake City (7/0)
            You don't exactly expect brilliance from a remake of a '70s action thriller, especially when the ...

By Sheri Linden of E! Online (7/0)
            A leaner version of the original, devoid of melodrama but just as simplistic in its emphasis on c...

                         Reviews of Walking Tall
By Erik Childress of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            It’s the kind of film that earns points just for not falling into the hands of Vin Diesel.

By Oz of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            The Rock does Billy Jack, and the director catches an early flight home.

By Scott Weinberg of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            Each successive cliche is dutifully checked off the list, but done so crisply and with a minimum ...

By Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly (7/0)
            This Walking Tall loses in depth what it gains in star power.

By Eric D. Snider of EricDSnider.com (7/0)
            This is a classic example of a film assuming we will be on the side of its protagonist just BECAU...

By Eugene Novikov of Film Blather (7/0)
            Goes to hell in its second half, getting bogged down in cop movie nonsense and a stunningly retar...

                         Reviews of Walking Tall
By Joe Utichi of FilmFocus (7/0)
            It’s not a mammoth of filmmaking, that much is true, but The Rock proves he knows what he’s doing...

By Jennie Punter of Globe and Mail (7/0)
            [The Rock] may be ready to rumble, but Walking Tall is a stumble.

By Andrea Chase of Killer Movie Reviews (7/0)
            if it weren't for the thematic undercurrent favorably depicting fascism and summary justice as th...

By John Larsen of Light Views (4/3)
            Serviceable only as an exercise in make-believe mayhem, it's frightening that it took four writer...

By Kenneth Turan of Los Angeles Times (7/0)
            The image of the Rock standing tall in the poster for Walking Tall, hefty piece of lumber delicat...

By Gabriel Shanks of Mixed Reviews (7/0)
            There are points to be made about the rapidly transforming cultural landscape, but painting them ...

                         Reviews of Walking Tall
By Ken Hanke of Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) (7/0)
            The good news about The Rock-ized remake is that -- shorn of its preposterously overlong end cred...

By Nell Minow of Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies (7/0)
            The original 1973 movie teetered on the brink of vigilantism. This remake produced by World Wrest...

By Jan Stuart of Newsday (7/0)
            As remakes go, Walking Tall exemplifies the dumbing down of stupidity.

By Frank Swietek of One Guy's Opinion (7/0)
            Nothing more than an efficiently-manufactured piece of crowd-pleasing vicarious violence, but it ...

By Cynthia Fuchs of PopMatters (7/0)
            A savvy media star and self-incorporating product, The Rock embodies our own cynical moment, when...

By Peter Travers of Rolling Stone (7/0)
            There was a time when guys would grab a six-pack and watch this kind of flick at a drive-in. I me...

                         Reviews of Walking Tall
By Joe Baltake of Sacramento Bee (7/0)
            It isn't much of a movie -- the plotline has been whittled down to next to nothing -- but it's a ...

By Mick LaSalle of San Francisco Chronicle (7/0)
            ...entertaining in the moment but, in the end, faintly silly.

By William Arnold of Seattle Post-Intelligencer (7/0)
            Without being ponderous about it, the script makes a compelling case that legalized gambling can ...

By Nick Schager of Slant Magazine (7/0)
            The miscast Rock never comes close to matching Joe Don Baker’s sweaty, ungainly, force-of-nature ...

By Paul Salfen of Supercala.com (7/0)
            Director Kevin Bray knows what his audience wants...they want their bad guys to be really bad, an...

By Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide's Movie Guide (7/0)
            If The Rock weren't such a fundamentally genial screen presence, this short, stripped-down reveng...

                         Reviews of Walking Tall
By Mike Clark of USA Today (7/0)
            Though there's something mildly disarming about a movie this unpretentious, a few more like it mi...

By Willie Waffle of WaffleMovies.com (7/0)
            The Rock walks softly and carries a big stick (to WHOMP on some bad guys)...If it wasn't for The ...

By Christian Toto of Washington Times (7/0)
            Walking Tall's one-note vigilante action won't serve The Rock's star ambitions.

By John Beifuss of Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (3/5) Login Required (Login Required)
            A morally specious revenge fantasy for viewers frustrated by their own feelings of impotence in t...

By Dave Kehr of New York Times (3/5) Login Required (Login Required)
            Crisply directed...

By Bill Muller of Arizona Republic (3/4) No reference
            It's yet another dumb-as-dirt revenge story, in which the basic rules of government -- and plain ...

                         Reviews of Walking Tall
By Bob Longino of Atlanta Journal-Constitution (3/4) No reference
            Tall is short on involving camerawork and shorter on logic.

By Paul Clinton (Boxoffice) of Boxoffice Magazine (3/4) No reference
            The film promises vigilante payback, then delivers it without the kind of underlying moral outrag...

By Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times (3/4) No reference
            The Rock comes out of the movie more or less intact, career-wise.

By Pablo Villaca of Cinema em Cena (3/4) No reference
            O roteiro apresenta diversos defeitos que provavelmente só foram agravados pelo fato de nada meno...

By Richard Roeper of Ebert & Roeper (3/4) No reference
            ... a real disappointment.

By Brent Simon of Entertainment Today (3/4) No reference
            There are movies of uncomplicated simian enjoyment and there’s Walking Tall, in which a stirring ...

                         Reviews of Walking Tall
By Jim Slotek of Jam! Movies (3/4) No reference
            This remake of a classic piece of manipulative '70s cheese serves only to make the original reven...

By Louis B. Hobson of Jam! Movies (3/4) No reference
            A muddled mess.

By James Rocchi of Netflix (3/4) No reference
            Remake of the '70s vigilante smash is a low-grade meat-and-potatoes action flick with The Rock an...

By Jonathan Foreman of New York Post (3/4) No reference
            Exciting stuff in its primitive, predictable way...

By Stephen Whitty of Newark Star-Ledger (3/4) No reference
            It's certainly a busy little movie, although none of it makes much sense.

By M.E. Russell of Oregonian (3/4) No reference
            Don't go in expecting much and you'll have fun.

                         Reviews of Walking Tall
By Gary Thompson of Philadelphia Daily News (3/4) No reference
            Walking Tall is nothing great. It's also not bad -- fast-moving, efficient, with plenty of surfac...

By Peter Travers of Rolling Stone (3/4) No reference
            It’s the Rock’s star quality that gives this headbanger a heartbeat.

By David Elliott of San Diego Union-Tribune (3/4) No reference
            The old Walking Tall was seen as having populist politics, along with such other rousers of its t...

By Desson Thomson of Washington Post (3/4) No reference
            One mediocre, ploddingly predictable film, loaded down with cheesy Hollywood tactics.

By Michael O'Sullivan of Washington Post (3/4) No reference
            Walking Tall actually underserves its star, who is better than schlocky material like this would ...

By James Berardinelli of ReelViews (3/4) Not Reachable
            ...a wretched motion picture...

Movie Distributors

Production Companies
Mandeville Films
Myriad Pictures
Hyde Park Entertainment
WWE Films

Movie Studios
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM)