Film reviews - May 31: 12 Rounds; Obsessed

May 31 2009

12 ROUNDS *** (15)

The star of this film, John Cena, is a former professional wrestler. Since the dawn of the acting profession, that has always been a very, very bad sign. Think of the great actors - Pacino, DeNiro, whoever. Think any of them got their first brush with stardom being flung around the ring to loud rock music, wearing a day-glo Lycra leotard? Well, no.

But John obviously fancied a bit of the lifestyle The Rock now leads, so here we have his second film as leading man. The first, The Marine - seen by blessedly few - saw him as a soldier out to rescue his kidnapped wife.

This time, in a radical stretch, he is a cop rescuing his kidnapped girlfriend. He's Danny Fisher, working in New Orleans and getting promoted for busting a master criminal, who soon breaks out of jail to take his revenge. So far, so predictable.

Then, in a Die Hard With A Vengeance style plot device, the Irish bad guy Miles Jackson (Aidan Gillen) snatches Dan's girl and sets him 12 ludicrous tasks. If he fulfils his tasks, he gets his girl back. If not, she dies.

We are not talking easy jobs here - the missions range from grabbing a safe deposit box before it blows up to stopping a runaway tram before it wipes out its passengers.

Naturally, the seemingly-unconnected tasks are part of a massive plan of very evil intent.

The main downer here is the villain, who is just not all that. Whether it's Gillen's fault or simply poor scripting, he's as menacing as a little puppy barking because it wants to play.

It's a shame because Cena has the sort of likeable air that suggests he could just make it as an action movie type. However, it won't be thanks to this movie. Mickey McMonagle

Obsessed ** (12A)

Not even the lovely Beyoncé Knowles can save this clichéd thriller. She is Sharon, happily married to asset manager Derek (Idris Elba). Temp and psychotic temptress Lisa (Ali Larter) wants to get her claws into him, he resists and she turns stalker. But it's more Feeble Attraction than Fatal Attraction.

Heroes' favourite Larter does put in a gritty performance and it all builds to the catfight between the two women. But it's a film that ultimately feels a bit pointless. Avril Cadden