This direct to DVD sequel to Walking Tall 2 – The Payback (2007) is itself a semi sequel to Walking Tall (2004) starring The Rock, which is in turn a remake of Walking Tall (1973) starring Joe Don Baker. There was a TV series back in 1981 too, but any more on that and things would just get complicated.
Kevin Sorbo of TV’s Hercules fame is Nick Prescott, son of a rural sheriff and an former Marine. He spent much of Walking Tall 2 busting drug dealers’ heads and putting his hometown back in order. Here we join him retired from such grief and settling into a new life with FBI girlfriend Katie (Yvette Nipar) and her teenage daughter Krystal (Jennifer Sipes).
But when a local crime king begins intimating witnesses in a federal case, Nick steps up to protect his new family the only way he knows how… by opening a big ol’ can of whupass.
We say:
He may have a surname like a frozen dessert, but there’s nothing namby pamby about Kevin Sorbo. He’s 6’ 3”, a former bouncer and, if this movie is to be believed, not too shabby in a scuffle.
Actually Sorbo is a fine actor often surpassing his TV roots. He is deft with comedy (See him bake! Drop a spoon! Wear an apron!), just as much as the fisticuffs. The film dips when he is not onscreen, which thankfully, in the later scenes in particular, is not often.
Walking Tall 2 was a terrific little low budget time waster that never let up. Director Tripp Reed has made this sequel in much the same style, though his visuals are now even more dizzying and frenetic.
Keenly influenced by David Fincher’s Seven, Reed’s darting, gloomy camera work turns this straightforward story into an overly complicated affair. Yet his tidy handling of the first act’s nifty reversal does deserve a special mention.
With a revolving tone, he attempts to catch his audience off guard. A very funny scene involving a tin can and a convenience store robbery open the film (Nick is not Crocodile Dundee, that’s for sure), then moments later a gunfight occurs leaving several people dead. The effect is a tad jarring, but not unduly distracting in the long term.
Interestingly one of the screenwriters, Joe Halpin, is a Luton born former narcotics detective. This is not a grimly realistic portrayal of taking a major drug dealer off the streets, but you can feel a certain authenticity in the round table discussions between cops and lawyers.
Not everything here works. The Godfather-esque hospital scene feels excessive. Plus the soundtrack, a kind of Cotton Eyed Joe/ Bourne Ultimatum riff, grates after a time. No matter, then Sorbo smacks someone in the face with a tea tray and the world is OK again.
With all this violence you need to see the grizzly details as best you can. Thankfully the DVD print is tidy and the sound brutal. Gunshots thump like stomach punches, providing an ideal opportunity to find out just how deaf your next door neighbours really are.
Take Walking Tall - Lone Justice for what it is and you will enjoy it, guaranteed.
Extras:
Trailers, including one for Reign Over Me which we have already reviewed and suggest you check out pronto.
CAST
Kevin Sorbo
Yvette Nipar
Jennifer Sipes
Haley Ramm
DIRECTOR
Tripp Read
TIME
90 mins
POSTED...
Fri 21 Sep 2007 at 4:55pm
