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Should have been retitled, “Falling Down”. Oh, sorry that title has been taken. This remake of the 1973 action movie with Joe Don Baker of the same name keeps only the basic premise from the original. While the Rock did a solid job in both “The Scorpion King” and “The Rundown”, his charm can’t carry a script that passed through too many hands and a film that has been trimmed to the bare minimum (under 90 minutes). Kevin Bray’s lukewarm direction and poor pacing makes “Walking Tall” crawl rather than walk. While I wasn’t expecting Hamlet (the original film was, after all, an exploitation flick with a conscience), I did expect more than we’re given here. There’s not much chance for character development here as it gets directly to the action. Chris Vaughan (the Rock) returns to his hometown to discover it has been overrun by drugs and goons. The problem is that his childhood friend Jay (Neal McDonough in a sharp performance) is behind it all. Chris decides it’s time to take back the streets but, unfortunately, the sheriff and just about any authority seems involved. Needless to say, many witty comments are made while busting heads and taking names. ---

As if this film didn’t take enough of a beating from critics, the extras here are another area where the film will face some sharp criticism as well. We get deleted scenes, an alternate ending and a photo gallery which might have been top notch about three or four years ago. The single featurette “Fight the Good Fight” runs a little over five minutes and doesn’t offer much background beyond some rudimentary observations about the fight sequences. The blooper reel, photo gallery and theatrical trailers/previews round out the meager extras. ---