Star: Dwayne Johnson

Journey 2 The Mysterious Island (2012) – Josh Hutcherson, Dwayne Johnson and Michael Cain

This movie is full of trashy drama and juvenile remarks — it’s all a bit silly, but it has some decent action and curious story features too. I rate it Watchable — that’s a few levels below average, and it couldn’t be much worse, but it’s Watchable nevertheless, if you’re bored and haven’t seen it recently enough to remember how it goes — mainly thanks to its mix of strong and mediocore cast members. If you have seen it before and vaguely remember certain features — and maybe even if you haven’t or can’t — you may still find certain patches are highly skippable for the sake of your own sanity because not every fan of smooth action hero movies wants to sit through scenes of childish screaming, panicking and running past fictional creatures etc, or standing on a cliff and arguing about how to get down it, or even sailing a fantasy submarine vessel without much else going on, for prolonged durations. Indeed, certain patches are barely watchable, and highly skippable, but certain other patches are mildly amusing so it balances out as Watchable.

Cast Members

Josh Hutcherson stars as the rebellious teenager come young man. He’s acting straight here, acting interested in the girl, but he can’t hide his actual bentness to save his life.

Dwayne Johnson plays his stepfather who joins him on his journey as a rare chance to bond with him, and an aged Kristin Davis (from the obscenely named series in the city) plays his mother although we only see her briefly at the start and the end, when everyone’s home. Michael Caine plays the 2-years-missing grandfather who found the island before his grandson — he has the odd bit of banter with Dwayne Johnson, which is mildly amusing.

Then Luis Guzmán plays the pilot for hire, and Vanessa Hudgens plays his daughter — they both come along for the ride when their helicopter crashes in the storm around the island.

That’s pretty much the whole cast there, except the odd cop and homeowner who shows their face in the opening police chase scene.

See also

If you enjoyed this movie, you may also enjoy a slightly more mature movie of a similar theme: The Jungle Cruise (2021) — also starring Dwayne Johnson, but this time as the captain of the ship.

The Jungle Cruise (2021) – Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt

This Disney movie is like a more mature and slightly better made version of Journey 2 The Mysterious Island (2012) which also starred Dwayne Johnson.

The Jungle Cruise (2021) stars Dwayne Johnson as a ship captain for hire, and Emily Blunt as a woman seeking a legendary miracle cure from a plant hidden deep in the Amazon jungle. The chemistry between Dwayne and Emily is pretty good here. Her tag-along ‘brother’ played by Jack Whitehall is less entertaining but plays his role adequately. Jesse Plemons does a decent job as the main baddie.

By near the half way mark, this movie looks set for a Bang Average rating, which is markedly better than Journey 2, mainly because it’s more mature (while still a bit childish) but also because it’s generally a better production, with better humour. Having said that, it goes sharply downhill around the middle, as there’s a mix of extended boring patches and disgusting patches. It eventually gets a bit better again, but never really re-attains the levels of fun and enthusiasm as it had earlier on. For this reason, plus the fact it’s a bit off-genre, I’m going to rate it just So-So for the action hero movie fan, which is just one level above Journey 2 in the end.

Race To Witch Mountain (2009) – Dwayne Johnson

This is one of The Rock’s earlier movies — he’s looking young, lean and fly here — not the middle aged beast we know and love today.

Being a Disney movie, it’s got a certain quality of production, but it’s also a bit juvenile and over-theatrical.

By shortly after 20 minutes in, when the main character realises something is very strange but curious about the passengers he just dropped off, things become interesting, and after a powerful opening with cool things happening and near-seamless entertainment, this movie looks set for a Decent rating, give or take 1 level depending how it continues.

The slightly juvenile vibe lets it down a bit, and for this reason, by the half way mark it seems set on a Decent rating still, even though there was some strong action and plot unravelling earlier. By the end, the decision hasn’t changed.

Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2017) – Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart

I rate this movie Bang Average because it’s got good actors in Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, and as you’d expect with those two involved, it’s got good humour too. But there’s a lot of weirdness here. I’m talking tons of gay-play with sexual connotations, and encouraging really messy & reckless emotional outburts in our impressionable youth. Typical Hollywood!

There’s not much of a classic action hero vibe going on here — it’s more of a lighthearted ‘family’ entertainment genre, and I use the word family in quotes for reasons already stated — any responsible parent would not feed this kind of trash to their children without exhaustive ‘parental guidance’.

This isn’t even the best comedy by the name of Welcome To The Jungle starring Dwayne Johnson! There’s another, which is also called The Rundown and it’s even better than this one thanks to its co-star Seann William Scott who makes an even better funny sidekick than Kevin Hart.

Jumanji: The Next Level (2019) – Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart

The first 15 minutes of this movie comprise boring, irritating drama — highly skippable, even though it features an aged Danny DeVito (in his mid 70s).

After that, it gets really weird. If you thought a bunch of grown men & women acting like teenage goofballs in new bodies wasn’t weird enough, this time they’re acting like irritating elderly cripples — always complaining & ignoring etc. That’s quite a turn off in the first half hour, and there’s still a good 90 minutes to go! At this rate, this movie will be lucky to score Below Average which is a darn shame seeing how it stars Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart.

It’s sad to say, considering its star cast members in Dwayne and Kevin, but this movie is genuinely hard to watch at times. Especially when they start waffling with the new co-main cast member after 50 minutes in — that’s Awk Wafina, the same docile-come-hyper dumpy-butch Chinese chick in all the action movies lately — and then things stay boring for pretty much the entire movie thereafter. The Rock doesn’t get nearly enough screen time, and when he does, it’s so lifeless & bad, it kind of seems like it’s been Deep Faked, like he was ever really there and it’s all made with AI. As such, this movie warrants a Barely Watchable rating, which is several levels worse than the 2017 movie which was bad enough at Bang Average.

Hercules (2014) – Dwayne Johnson

Hercules (2014)

Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) does a decent job as Hercules in this movie, although the script is lacking somewhat, so the most magnificent moments aren’t quite as strong they should be. There’s a good amount of action, not much in terms of boring bits, and there are some very strong scenes, some of which weren’t quite as well coordinated or memorable as they were in The Legend Of Hercules from the same year starring Kellan Lutz, while others were a bit better, so I rate this movie about equal to that one – maybe one level below since this movie is a bit less emotive, with a bit less of an action hero vibe. This movie, instead, has a bit more of a “can’t we all just get along” comradery vibe, which works ok in its own way, it just doesn’t knock your socks off.

Much like in The Legend Of Hercules, there are a few decent supporting cast members here, and a few mediocre. If we could some how combine the best of both movies, we may then have ended up with a single very strong Hercules movie in 2014, but instead we got a couple of movies that feel like they’re hitting a mark short of where they should be considering the core plot potential and the lead actor potential of each.

Hobbs & Shaw (2019) – Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham

Hobbs & Shaw (2019)

Two for the price of one, with both Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) and Jason Statham in co-lead roles, as ‘Hobbs’ and ‘Shaw’, continuing their characters from the Fast & Furious movies.

Plenty of high budget fast action scenes including epic car chases, inline with the rest of the Fast & Furious movie series, of which this is a kind of spin-off since Vin Diesel and The Rock didn’t want to work with each other any more.

Idris Elba makes a convincing antagonist too.

Ryan Reynolds has a funny supporting role – this is where he belongs – not in the lead role of an action hero movie. Great supporting role by Kevin Hart too – top level banter there.

Terrible choice of sleazy bratty pop music throughout – kind of ruins the vibe and is a missed opportunity, reminiscent of Black Panther from the year before.

Deadly virus themed plot – no surprise since it’s released in 2019 – it’s even called ‘CV17’ aka ‘the snowflake’ which ‘targets the weakest of us’. Ring any bells?

Dirty theme aside, there’s odd bit of good light humour throughout. But the comedy only works because the mood is otherwise nonchalant – for all the expensive action scenes, it’s not got the cool & comforting mood of something like Bloodsport – the plot is a bit soul-less and the action is intermittently noisy and unemotive, between exciting patches – just as you’d expect from any recent Fast & Furious movie. This is a classic example of how more money and big action movie stars doesn’t necessarily equal action scenes that click – top talent is still needed to put things together behind the scenes. The genre seems to be having an identity crisis – the action here isn’t nearly as slick and clicking as in The Transporter, and it isn’t nearly so funny as The Rundown. It’s got all the meat & bones of a mega classic, but lacks the warm blood running through it, as is often the case when too many superstars come together in one movie – the crew tend to get complacent and the movie ends up stinking (à la Ocean’s Eleven). Ironic, considering The Rock’s speech near the end of this movie, about having heart, to overcome machines.

The mood lifts about two thirds of the way in though, when the team head to Samoa to seek refuge among The Rock’s extended warrior family members. But the cast members playing his relatives aren’t impressive – another missed opportunity.

The lead female is played by Vanessa Kirby but she’s more like one of the lads. Eye candy instead comes courtesy of Eiza González (of Bloodshot (2020) starring Vin Diesel), but she only gets a few minutes of screen time. Major mix up there, and another missed opportunity.

Flaws aside, the stars and budget still carry this movie through to being decent. It’s not a bad movie at all. It’s just way off what it could have been, considering the levels each star has reached alone in other action movies.

The Rundown (2003) – Dwayne Johnson and Seann William Scott

The Rundown (2003)

Also known as ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ but not to be confused with Van Damme’s 2013 movie by that name; The Rundown stars Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) and Seann William Scott (from Bulletproof Monk and American Pie) and deserves a very high rating as it’s thoroughly entertaining from start to finish mainly thanks to great performances by the two lead characters who are well known for producing thoroughly entertaining action movies.

The rundown also benefits from a mildly adventure-packed plot, and decent performances by the supporting cast – some of whom are just as famous as the lead actors. Christopher Walken (the villain from True Romance opposite Christian Slater, and A View To A Kill opposite Roger Moore, among over 100 other Hollywood movies) is the main baddie here; while the lead female role is played by Rosario Dawson who is perhaps best known for playing Claire (the nurse) in Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and The Defenders.

The Rundown is a real adventure and highly recommended for fans of Dwayne Johnson and fans of Seann William Scott who both produce some of their best work in this movie. As you’d expect, with Dwayne’s background in wrestling and combat-oriented movies, and with Seann’s role in another awesome action movie in the same year (Bulletproof Monk), this movie features plenty of fighting – mainly empty-handed but also plenty of action with guns. This movie doesn’t seem under-funded although it does have a fairly simplistic (but kind of sufficient) plot – with a more advanced plot this movie could potentially be on a par with the best movies ever made due to its already outstanding action-comedy entertainment value.

This move is an action packed adventure, with a few slower scenes. As with many star studded movies, the stars are carrying this one through a poor script and it would be a pointless movie if it only had average actors. Here we have two megastars in one movie, plus a strong chief antagonist and a decent lead female. It could still benefit from one more star in the cast, but is already doing very well in this department.

Black Adam (2022) – Dwayne Johnson and Pierce Brosnan

Black Adam (2022) starring Dwayne Johnson

Powerful music and sound effects, and a top class lead cast, make this movie emotive and enjoyable from start to finish, and easily rewatchable. There aren’t really any boring bits. It’s let down somewhat by a pair of immature, low-IQ supporting superheroes (Cyclone and Atom Smasher) but the rest of the supporting cast range from decent to excellent.

Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) is made for this role as Teth Adam / Black Adam – he performs outstandingly in this movie. Pierce Brosnan was also a great fit for his role as Doctor Fate – he also gives a very strong performance.

Aldis Hodge does quite a good job as Hawkman.

America-born ethnic-Iranian actress Sarah Shahi (real name Aahoo Jahansouzshahi) does great in her role as Isis, the benevolent researcher who found the Crown of Sabbac and set free Teth Adam.

Bodhi Sabongui does a decent job as Amon Tomaz, the son of Isis, who befriended Teth Adam.

Mohammed Amer does a decent job as Karim – he’s a bit of a camp comedian playing a semi-serious role as Isis’s brother / Amon’s uncle.

Marwan Kenzari does a good job as the research team member who was hiding his true intentions to become Sabbac – the demon tasked with delivering hell on earth.

Continued… “Black Adam (2022) – Dwayne Johnson and Pierce Brosnan”