It took four writers to concoct the screenplay for the new version of Walking Tall.
With a running time of just under 80 minutes, that means each writer is responsible for about 20 minutes of this revenge flick.
Seeing what a muddled mess Walking Tall turns out to be, it could be concluded the four scribes never actually sat down in the same room, but mailed their ideas in to former music video director Kevin Bray.
This is a big shame because Walking Tall wastes the talents and charisma of its star, Dwayne Johnson, a.k.a. the Rock.
Johnson keeps getting better with each new film and he is the sole reason to see this Walking Tall.
He has a smile as big and impressive as his biceps and he's getting able to make both of them work for him when his characters have to get serious or sensitive.
The Rock's Walking Tall is inspired by the 1973 film that told how Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser drove mobsters and moonshiners out of his little town 40 years ago.
It's a tricky story because it's all about vigilante justice, although Pusser had strong motivation to take the law into his own hands. The original sheriff was on the payroll of the mobsters.
The same is true for Chris Vaughn (Johnson), when he returns to his little Washington mill town after a tour of duty with America's Special Forces.
Things are not the same.
When his father died, Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough) closed the family mill and opened a casino instead.
Hamilton is dealing drugs and prostitution, as well as cards, from his new establishment and turning the townsfolk into addicts of all three.
When Hamilton's goons leave Chris for dead after beating and mutilating him and then threaten to do the same to his family, the former soldier strikes back with everything he has.
Actually, he uses a wooden club, but it proves as lethal as a shotgun.
It seems obvious the film's editors used a similar approach when they took the film into their labs.
The fight sequences have been muted to save the film from the adult rating it deserves.
Johnson's club does more damage to slot machines and vehicles than it does to the villains, although we get glimpses of their battered bodies after each fray.
There's more graphic violence in a football match between Vaughn's friends and the casino thugs than there is when they tangle for real.
I'm not advocating graphic violence in films, but it seems foolish to make a film about revenge and vigilante justice and then take the sting out of it.
Johnson has an excellent sidekick in Johnny Knoxville, who play Rays Templeton, a reformed drug addict who becomes Vaughn's deputy.
Their scenes together offer some strong comic relief and yet Knoxville is still credible as a one-man army of his own when he defends Vaughn's family home, while his friend is fending off the former corrupt police department back in town.
Johnson deserves much better than this Walking Tall, which has had too much of its power and impact exorcised.
Johnson can't be expected to deliver the goods if he's given nothing to deliver.
(This film is rated 14-A)
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