12 Rounds 2: Reloaded [Blu-Ray]

During the opening moments of the completely unnecessary sequel to the forgettable Renny Harlin thriller, 12 Rounds, meathead paramedic Nick Malloy (Randy Orton) jokes with his girlfriend (Cindy Busby) about how torturous it is to watch romantic comedies. His dialogue, along with his attempt to have a natural conversation, is reminiscent of most WWE productions, having the broad sensibility and lack of subtext or character definition common in early '90s erotic thrillers. Dutch director Roel Reiné, who has been behind virtually every unnecessary straight-to-DVD action film of late (Death Race 2, Death Race 3, The Marine 2, The Scorpion King 3, etc.) is very much aware of this, however. He zips by these painful but necessary snippets of dialogue to the action, focusing on stylization when two cars crash and flip in front of the comely couple, leaving our paramedic protagonist to run around saving the lives of those injured in the accident. Jump ahead one year and Reiné employs the same tactic, rushing through the overly staged scenes of calmness in Nick's home to a routine ambulance call gone wrong when he discovers a weird digital advice sewn into a patient. A mysterious phone call informs him that his girlfriend's life will be truncated lest he participate in a game with the titular "12 rounds," which involves him kidnapping Tommy (Tom Stevens), the drug-addicted, ex-convict, loser son of a politician. Once this plot comes into play, Reloaded does what it does best: ramp up the soundtrack and employ aggressively edited action sequences involving fist fights, car chases and races against the clock. Despite an obviously limited budget, these sequences are quite involving and even, at times, intense. Every time the action slows down to allow Detective McKenzie (Venus Terzo) to speculate about why this mild-mannered man is on a kidnapping, bullet-riddled rampage through the city, there's an abundance of head-scratching logic — her policing decisions are consistently ridiculous — but these moments are brief and are always followed by another round of car thefts and police shootouts, allowing Orton to do the stunt work he's better suited for. There's absolutely no message or purpose beyond that of broad vengeance — it doesn't take a genius to figure out that these 12 rounds have something to do with the car accident that opened the film— and there are far too many conveniences and oversights for the text to be taken seriously in any capacity. But in a movie where the sole sex scene is exploited for maximum effect, panning up and down a woman's body to get multiple views of her breasts, which are shown in colour and in black & white, no less, this lack of intellectual discourse is to be expected. As far as crap goes, Reloaded doesn't stink as badly as most. The special features focus mostly on Orton and his enthusiasm for starring in his first film and doing his own stunts.