Blu-Ray Review: ’12 Rounds’

The Movie:

When I first heard that John Cena would be starring in another WWE produced film, my first thought was the mediocre quality that was ‘The Marine’. I put the movie in (I didn’t see this in theaters) with great hesitation and sat down for what I thought would be an extremely boring, over acted action flick that would further market wrestlers as actors.

’12 Rounds’ of course stars John Cena as Danny Fisher a New Orleans police officer who ends up taking down a Miles Jackson (Aidan Gillen), a terrorist that the FBI has been trying to capture. In the process of the arrest Jackson’s girlfriend attempts to run and is hit by a truck. Miles tells Danny that he will have his revenge on him which he brushes off due to the fact that he will be in jail for a very long time.

Fisher gets a phone call a year to the day later from Miles telling him they are about to start playing a game which consists of 12 Rounds, if he can make it through all 12 rounds he will save his girlfriend from the same fate that Miles’ girlfriend met. Fisher agrees to this since of course his girlfriend means everything to him, and lucky for him she is played by the stunningly beautiful Ashley Scott.

Fisher stars to make it through the rounds with the help of the FBI and his partner but he quickly realizes that he will have to outsmart Miles, since he isn’t playing with a full deck of cards and has ultimate control over each round.

The story is actually really great although not 100% new, its fun and keeps you guessing. We all know the outcome of the movie from the beginning since its one of those “Hero” story lines but its an entertaining film and definitely a “thrill ride”.

The Disc:

You get 2 disc’s with this release, one that features a Digital Copy, which in my opinion was one of the greatest moves they have made with getting people to buy instead of steal. The regular Blu-Ray disc features both releases of the film, the theatrical and the unrated cut. I honestly couldn’t tell much difference between the 2, but that is typically the case with multiple versions.

There are 2 commentary tracks on here, the first of which is pretty boring listening to Director Renny Harlin talk about making the film. When he is actually talking its a good commentary track, but there are a lot of pauses throughout. The other track features writer Daniel Kunka and Mr John Cena talking about their experiences making the film. It is here you really realize that Cena isn’t just a ridiculous wrestler, but a pretty intellectual dude as well.

I love when you get alternate endings for a movie, you can kind of take the director seat and critique why they went with the one they did. There are 2 of them here and both come through in 1080.

The Blu-Ray aspects of the film are ridiculously great. High Definition was made for badass action flicks and this one takes full advantage with explosions and high impact camera work for all the sequences. It fully utilizes the 1080p of my TV and its super sexy.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5