Strictly average movie

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Why Hollywood keeps doing these awful movies? It's the same script over and over again: Hero cop with a hot girlfriend. Cop does his job catching a very dangerous foreign bad guy and the bad guy's girlfriend dies. After a year, bad guy escapes prison and plots a revenge on hero cop by making him play a deadly 12 round game, while keeping hot girlfriend kidnapped. Hero cop successfully completes the 12 rounds and kills bad guy. Add the killing of hero cop's black best friend, ruthless FBI agent, black as well, who turns into a good guy to help hero cop in the last minute and a bunch of classic cliché punch lines such as the "do you trust me?" one that hero cop tells hot girlfriend to convince her to jump into a rooftop swimming pool from a falling helicopter which was being operated by hot girlfriend. So many clichés it would take hours to write them down. AND to round it up, add very bad acting from all actors, including Little Finger, and lots of goofs and there you go. An instant Hollywood classic thriller worth two sequels.

Needless to say SPEED (1994) was definitely an inspiration for this movie, to the point that if they'd switch things around just a little bit it could have been a sequel to it.And even though John Cena is better than he usually is in movies, he's just no Keanu (did I say that? Oh yes I did).And Ashley Scott is definitely no Sandra Bullock and furthermore Aidan Gillen no Dennis Hopper.That said, it's not terrible, SPEED (1994) to me is just one of the best blockbuster action movies of the 90's so the chance that it would match up to it would really be second to none.Anyway back to this movie, it's okay fairly mindless popcorn entertainment, Renny Harlin is good when it comes to action-sequences and yet again he delivers on those aspects.I'm usually not bothered to much over shaky cams but this movie contains a overabundance of that and occasionally you wish they would just use steady cam but what can you do? not much.There's really not that much more to talk about the movie, it's not a bad movie we've just seen it before.It's the best movie I've seen with John Cena at least, there is always that.

Danny Fisher (John Cena) is a New Orleans beat cop who arrested master criminal Miles Jackson (Aidan Gillen). In the process, he kills the love of Miles' life, and Miles vows revenge. One year later, Miles escapes from prison, and kidnaps Danny's girl Molly (Ashley Scott). To get her back, Danny must follow Miles' instructions in a game of 12 rounds.It's a very derivative movie reminiscent of 'Die Hard: With a Vengeance'. John Cena seems like a perfectly reasonable cop character. He has reasonable charisma but he has a limited acting range. He can't add the much needed comic relief like Bruce Willis.Also there is just too much ridiculousness. The tests are ridiculous. The FBI agent played by Steve Harris is ridiculous. The problem is that the rounds get very repetitive with action splashed in every once in awhile.Is it a good movie? No, but I've seen much worst. The action kept me interested for about half of the movie. It's just too repetitive and one dimensional. There's a bit of fun action. If that's all you're looking for, this movie certainly has it.

Powerhouse New Orleans cop Danny Fisher (wrestler Joey Cena) manages to apprehend a deadly international criminal mastermind Miles Jackson (Aidan Gillen) with some superhuman athleticism, a lot of luck and the superior intellect obviously leisurely driving in zigzags, while escaping from an on-foot policeman. Thanks to a bit of Flash running abilities Jackson ends up in custody, but the capture results in the tragic death of the criminal's beloved. Due to this heroic act, where he manages to outdo the incompetent FBI (who preconceivably obviously messed up, as stated by Fisher himself), both him and his partner Hank Carver (Brian White) get promoted to detective. However a year later Miles Jackson manages to escape prison (with an unexplained Houdini act) and soon reappears to make Fisher's life a living hell...From here on in, if you've watched "Die Hard 3", the plot is pretty self-evident, as Jackson challenges Fisher to complete twelve rounds of tasks, or else his kidnapped beloved Molly Porter (Ashley Scott) will meet a tragic end. Whereas in "Die Hard 3" the plot actually unravelled nicely, "12 Rounds" stupefies with inconsistent scriptwriting (further explanation would however result in massive spoilers). Surprisingly enough the helmer in charge Renny Harlin actually directed "Die Hard 2", so it comes off a sort of an overdue attempt to prove that he would have done a better job than John McTiernan on "Die Hard 3", maybe a pretty expensive showing of pretence and regret.The bulky presence of Joey Cena does suit the hard-boiled cop with a distinct sense of obligation, as an all-American, a far cry away from the rebellious and brash John McClane. Nonetheless Cena lacks the powerful on-screen presence to come off as anything other than a generic big guy in uniform, whose overall character impact is forgettable. Nonetheless Cena actually does one of the better acting jobs of the movie, as many other performances falter under the weight of B-class movie quality. Aidan Gillen alone pulls off a unanimously sound performance, presented his acting chops, although never really exerting himself.Given the faltering script, oft ludicrous and senseless both in plot elements as well as in cheesy dialogue, and the at best passable acting, "!2 Rounds" remains watchable due to its incessant pace, relentlessly running down the clock for its almost 2 hours of runtime. This involves some spectacular action sequences, which again remind one of something suited for a "Die Hard" outing. Regardless of loopholes and clichés this is a roaring escapade into explosions, car chases and over-the-top destruction "12 Rounds" nonetheless works well as a testosterone overdrive. Some restraint on the shaky cam would have worked wonders for my eyesight, but I've seen worse and lived to enjoyed the movie Unfortunately for Joey Cena the copy/paste rehashed plot and his ordinary performance guarantee that Fisher will never become a household action hero, instead just a blast-from-the-past old school cop thriller with some redeeming qualities and pleasurable watchability.