House of the Rising Sun (2011)

The Age of Commercialism

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Ray, an ex-con, is starting a new life looking to stay out of trouble. One evening, on Ray's watch, the nightclub he works for is robbed and the owner's son is shot dead. House of the Rising Sun once again tries to built a new generation of WWE Wrestlers turning into actors and some of them got lucky like The Rock some others did a decent job such as Cena and Stone Cold. Unfortunately tho this film doesn't give Bautista what he truly deserves cause the man has been good in a few movies but this one? Is unfortunately not one of them i guess. (4/10)

Well, I tried. I sat right thru 'til the end. For a while, I was OK with the script, and then, for a while, I thought it was the directing that made this pretty mediocre effort work. 'Til I saw him trying to sneak about, which made him look like a gorilla...OK. Off the fence. It doesn't work. Reviews have said the first bit is slow - well, it is. Slow but pretty tight.Then there's a long, (a really long), pause, then, well, it finishes.And, well, it's really all down to casting. I mean, if it's not script (thin, but, well, OK), or direction, (transparent, after about 40 mins in), it's gonna be casting.Danny Trejo. Lazy casting? Hmmm. You decide....In the end, I was honestly looking forward to Craig Fairbrass being on screen, 'cos at least he can act... And I'm a Brit, and usually I think he's rubbish, but this time he took all the scenes he was in, which said, well, something...So. Dave Bautista. Better than some ex WWF debuts, but learn to act, get a better fight coreog, and stop creeping around like a gorilla who filled his pants. Oh, and Amy Smart? (who did a passable job), she's tiny. A third your weight. I mean, what were you THINKING?

It's difficult to find a good starting point when it comes to this movie. As the author of the second review explains, the very beginning of the movie may have held some promise but the rest sure did not deliver anything better; it was all downhill indeed. I was amazed at the poor quality of the fight scenes, considering Bautista has the experience to deliver good fight sequences and has done so in the past. That can only mean one thing: production, editing and direction sucked. Okay, the script was as lame as the fight scenes; I would describe it as assembly line output writing or cookie cutter prose. In other words, the script also sucked.The pace of the movie is off; not fast enough when it ought to and chaotic when smooth is needed. If the director was a drummer in a band, the rest of the band would be better off with a "Sideman" (a.k.a. electronic drum/sequencer) and they'd kick him out the band.The cast had enough talent and experience to deliver what the production and direction would have asked, had the directors ask for the right things. Bautista is not quite ready to do dramatic scenes, yet it seems the directors (there were two no less) were determine to squeeze that ought of him. I'll bet Bautista could have directed and co-edited the fight scenes and produced better ones.Finally, Amy Smart was given another mediocre script; and again she did not pass it up. Aside from her amazing good looks, she can act the hell out of a part when it's a well written one; take for instance her role as Tracy Faucet in "The Rat Race (2001)", to name one that she can be very proud of. The whole cast was presumably given a script to read before accepting their parts; so all should share the blame for the poor result, unless of course the re-writes killed whatever life might have existed in the original version.

I'm not particularly a wrestling fan. However, there seems to be a growing trend introducing wrestlers to cinema. It's worked in the past for both Steve Austin and Dewayne Johnson, but it's not a set in stone formula.This was not a flick that followed the formula of a successful action film. The plot moves quickly at the beginning, but then stops, takes a few sharp (and typical for this genre) turns. Stops, and then takes a few more wide turns before finally coming to a stop. For this being billed as an action/drama movie, it really doesn't have the characteristics of those. The action and choreography is dull. Right down to it's core. I'd have rather them be too far out there than simply not enough, especially from a man like Bautista who has such a large physique, and a reputation in wrestling for being especially action-packed. There were some cheesy moments with the action, as well. CGI rendered bullet holes, for instance - which I normally don't have a problem with if they're difficult to detect. However, these are laughably noticeable. The acting was pretty atrocious for the most part. There were two saving graces: Amy Smart and Dominic Purcell (Danny Trejo's character doesn't have enough scenes to justify his role). Both Smart and Purcell played their parts very well. Their interaction with the main character is what you would expect for two seasoned actors talking to a dull brute. Bautista cannot act. I'm sure he's excellent at tossing people around the ring and being overly intimidating (I have to admit, he is an incredibly large fellow). However - he should stick to the over dramatization of wrestling and leave acting to people who are actually good at it. The plot was extremely cliché'. Nothing that I haven't seen before, this was just done much more poorly than previous renditions of the same story. I'd suggest staying away from House of the Rising Sun.