House of the Rising Sun
Another freight train of a pro wrestler turns to the movies
Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on May 2012
An ex-con working as a strip-club bouncer in Grand Rapids (Grand Rapids?) finds himself between a rock (the mob) and a hard place (the cops) when the place is robbed and he is blamed, and he must clear his name, etc. Pro: Dave Bautista, another freight train of a pro wrestler turning to the movies, delivers his lines competently and has a certain presence. And the filmmakers are, refreshingly, going for a noir vibe rather than slam-bang action. Con: Those filmmakers don’t have the chops to do noir, the story is shopworn, and it gets boring fast. Just kind of peters out at the end.
