Have you ever found yourself combing through Netflix, knowing that you’ve spent more time trying to figure out what you’re going to watch than you will actually spend watching whatever it is? Netflix has plenty of interesting movies worth checking out, but finding them amid plenty of movies that you should probably avoid can be a challenge.
That’s why we’ve done some of the hard work for you, and found a movie that’s definitely worth your time. That movie is The Rundown, an action-comedy starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as a bounty hunter who is sent to rescue his boss’s son, and winds up saving a local population from a greedy treasure hunter along the way. Here are three reasons the movie is definitely worth checking out.
It features a less-encumbered version of The Rock
The Rock has now been a movie star for roughly 20 years, and in that time, his persona onscreen has continued to change and evolve. He famously won’t allow his characters to lose fights on screen, and he seems to have a carefully manicured persona that he adopts for basically every role. Because he has tons of charisma, he can usually make that work well enough.
What’s great about The Rundown, though, is that it’s clear that The Rock is not yet thinking about how he can manage every aspect of his presence on screen. Instead, he gives himself over to the script, and uses his charisma to make the movie feel like a good time without worrying about how he’ll be perceived.
It’s genuinely funny
In addition to a more easy-going version of The Rock, The Rundown is also a reminder of just how funny he can be. Here, paired with Seann William Scott and Christopher Walken among other funny people, the movie feels like a genuine action comedy that takes both halves of its genre equation into account.
The Rundown‘s sense of humor doesn’t h0ld up perfectly, but you’d be amazed at how durable much of the comedy is, in part because it stems largely from the various situations that the two lead characters find themselves in.
It has a strong sense of identity
Like many of the best movies from the early 2000s, The Rundown has no desire to be anything more than exactly what it is. It doesn’t feel like the kind of movie that’s looking to make $1 billion, or the kind of movie that has been carefully calibrated to appeal to as many people as possible.
Instead, the movie is allowed to have something resembling an actual personality, and as a result, it has more character than most of what you’re likely to come across on any given streaming service, including many of the movies that that streaming service actually produced.
The Rundown is streaming on Netflix. We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.