12 Rounds (2009)

Detective Danny Fisher discovers his girlfriend has been kidnapped by a ex-con tied to Fisher's past, and he'll have to successfully complete 12 challenges in order to secure her safe release.

Director:

Renny Harlin

Writer:

Daniel Kunka

Stars:

John Cena, Aidan Gillen, Ashley Scott

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
John Cena	...	Danny Fisher
Aidan Gillen	...	Miles Jackson
Ashley Scott	...	Molly Porter
Steve Harris	...	George Aiken
Brian White	...	Hank Carver
Gonzalo Menendez	...	Ray Santiago
Taylor Cole	...	Erica Kessen
Kyle Russell Clements	...	Dave Fisher (as Kyle Clements)
Peter Navy Tuiasosopo	...	Willie Dumaine
Travis Davis	...	Anthony Deluso
Nick Gomez	...	Samuel
Brian Decaro	...	FBI Agent Gator
Rosalind Rubin	...	FBI Agent Sheila
Billy Slaughter	...	Technician
Kim Collins	...	Phil the Plumber

Storyline

Uniformed New Orleans PD officer Danny Fisher earns his promotion to detective to his near-rather lucky, albeit brave, arrest of ruthless terrorist arms-dealer Miles Jackson, whose girlfriend Erica Kessen got accidentally killed during the dirty FBI-operation. Exactly a year later, Miles has escaped and blows up Danny's house as foretaste of a Herculean race to accomplish twelve near-impossible tasks against the clock, otherwise his kidnapped wife Molly will be killed. Yet at the end, another master-plan is suspected.

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Plot Keywords:

detective | terrorist | time | police officer | tough cop | 

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action

Details

Official Sites:

Twentieth Century-Fox [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 March 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

12 desafíos

Filming Locations:

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$22,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£326,804 (UK) (29 May 2009)

Gross:

£612,954 (UK) (5 June 2009)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fox Atomic, WWE Films, Mark Gordon Company, The

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Renny Harlin's son Lucas appears as the little boy with the hat in the street car.

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Goofs

(at around 30 mins) When Officer Fisher is chasing the suspects on foot in the car after his friend gets shot in the butt, he runs through a house, then jumps over the fence in the backyard. Once he lands on the other side of the fence, you can see a cameraman's shadow very plainly being projected onto the fence.

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Quotes

Det. Danny Fisher: I'm training the world's most dominant pug. He's going through a bulking phase.

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Connections

References Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995)

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Soundtracks

"Sexual"
Composed by Jim Johnston (as James A. Johnston)
Performed by Jim Johnston with Stevan Swann
Courtesy of World Wrestling Entertaiment, Inc.

User Reviews

Nothing Original, But Undeniably Entertaining

In recent years, there really hasn't been many truly great action flicks to warrant fans of the genre to go to the theaters. Sure, there has been a few entries in classic action series like Rambo and Indiana Jones hat met with varied success, but not much in the line of fresh new flicks has been produced (Except the awesome Crank). Thus we come to a film that really garnered next to no hype and slipped quietly into theaters, 12 Rounds. Is it the movie action fans have been yearning for? Danny Fisher, played by WWE superstar John Cena, is a New Orleans detective faced with a problem: an old terrorist named Miles he arrested a year back has broken out of jail and has taken Fisher's girl. Now the only way to get her back is to complete 12 rounds of a "game" that Miles created to finally get revenge on the cop that ruined his life. It's an unlikely scenario to be sure, but hey, this is an action flick, so it's just preposterous enough to make for an interesting plot. The thing I don't understand though is the fact that in the trailer for 12 Rounds, it is said to be directed by the same director who did Die Hard 2, and produced by the Speed producer. Why is this odd? Well, it is obvious right from the start that 12 Rounds is a blatant rip-off of Speed right down to some scenes being near carbon-copies. Well, at least they ripped off the cream of the action genre crop I guess.

One of the major compliments I feel I have to give to the filmmakers comes in that no noticeable CGI was used anywhere in the movie. CGI has been overused way too much as of late, so to see an action movie with good ol' fashioned stunts and explosions is great. What's better than no CGI is how all the action is done incredibly well. Between great car chases, huge explosions, and nicely choreographed fights, it's a feast for the eyes. Of course, all this awesomeness couldn't just stay awesome thanks heavily to the awful camera-work. Similar to Quantum of Solace's quick cuts and shaky camera during action sequences, 12 Rounds makes it difficult at times to tell what the hell is going on. I don't see what is wrong with traditional camera-work where viewers can actually enjoy the high-quality special effects since they can be seen in all their glory, but I digress.

Honestly, there really isn't much to say about this one. If you are an action fan that has already seen every Stallone and Schwarzenegger movie under the sun, then 12 Rounds is sure to entertain on a rainy afternoon. Granted, it doesn't bring much to the table in terms of new concepts or anything like that, but it's entertaining, and that all that really matters, right? Again, it's a complete and utter rip-off of Speed, but it's a damn fine rip-off, and I would be willing to call this Speed 2 more than that pathetic piece of crap film with the cruise ship. After jumping to conclusions when I saw John Cena as the star and it being a WWE Production, I was genuinely surprised by the entertainment value found within, and I think that if viewers go in with the right mindset, they too will have a great time.