Walking Tall Blu Ray Review (MVD Marquee)

Walking Tall is a 2004 action film directed by Kevin Bray (All About the Benjamins, Linewatch, Cold Case, Burn Notice, & Suits). It’s based off a true story. It’s a remake of the 1973 production. A decent amount of changes were made from the original. It made $57,223,890 at the box office worldwide. Two direct to video sequels The Payback & Lone Justice starring Kevin Sorbo followed this feature. Former U.S. Army Special Forces sergeant Chris Vaughn (played by: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson from WWE, Rampage, Baywatch, San Andreas, & Snitch) returns to his small home town Kitsap County in Washington. He’s looking for work & notices how much everything has changed there.  Jay Hamilton (played by: Neal McDonough from Minority Report, Justified, Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow, & Captain America: The First Avenger) has a new casino & invites Chris to check it out. He finds out that his high school friend Deni (played by: Ashley Scott from Jericho, Into the Blue, Just Friends, The Kingdom, & S.W.A.T) is now a stripper.

He calls out some shady business while being guest there. The head of security Booth (played by: Kevin Durand from The Strain, Lost, Resident Evil: Retribution, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, & Smokin’ Aces) doesn’t like these accusations & gets aggressive towards the visitor. Chris goes to sheriff Stan Watkins (played by: Michael Bowen from Kill Bill, Jackie Brown, The Last House on the Left, Lost, & Breaking Bad) to press charges after the incident but he refuses to help because the casino brings in too much money for the town. He investigates his new rivals & discovers that there’s more illegal business going on there besides the casino. After realizing that his back is against the wall, he gets help from his friend Ray Templeton (played by: Johnny Knoxville from Jackass, Bad Grandpa, Action Point, Men in Black II, & Big Trouble) to stop all this corruption. His sister Michelle (played by: Kristen Wilson from Bulletproof, Doctor Dolittle trilogy, & Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) works in law enforcement. His parents Chris Sr. (played by: John Beasley from The Mighty Ducks, Rudy, Little Big League, & The Gift) & Connie (played by: Barbara Tarbuck from American Horror Story, Short Circuit, S. Darko, & Scanner Cop II) are all fighting back to take back their home. Chris wants to be the new sheriff & clean up his hometown. Is it too late to help this place?

A remake can really get into some rough territories & it’s hard to please the original fan base most of the time. I really appreciated & enjoyed how they changed this up enough to stand out on it’s own. This is one of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson best films especially early on in his acting career. He proved on Walking Tall that he could do more than action. Johnny Knoxville is usually hit or miss with material but this role was perfect for him. It’s definitely one of his best performances.  Neal McDonough, Kevin Durand, & Michael Bowen were what this project needed to give it that extra boost. It was a nice variety of bad guys to give some real motivation for revenge from the main character. Ashley Scott provided some excellent eye candy & wasn’t shy to show some skin in this. It’s a shame it was a PG-13 flick but she pushed the boundaries for it. This delivered all the stuff that you would want for an action feature. The fight scenes were executed great in this. It’s loaded with entertainment & it has a nice flow to it.

Let’s talk about the high definition presentation from MVD Marquee. This 1080p (2.35:1) transfer is the same one that the studio used on the original blu ray release. It looks solid & it has a nice small town atmosphere to it. It has 4 different audio tracks which include English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English: LPCM 2.0, French: Dolby Digital 5.1, & Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0 on here. It definitely delivers for being an action flick  & it sounds great in my home set up! It has some real nice moments here. It also has English SDH, Spanish, Korean, & Mandarin subtitles. As far as dialogue & various languages go, this is one of the best releases from MVD so far!!!!

Let’s discuss the special features on this blu ray disc! “Audio Commentary” # 1 with star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. He talks about the opening song. He mentions the locations used for the production. He jokes if you are looking for a “outhouse” oops art house film this is the wrong thing to watch. He says the original film is one of his all time favorites & that’s why he went to the studio about remaking it. He brings up why he changed the name of the character. He jokes about this feature having 100 producers on it. He points out some hilarious mistakes in this. He chats about the cast & the variety of actors he worked with on here. He tells a funny story about getting the wrong hotel room. He brings up that the crew members were trying to find any excuse to watch the strip scene on the set. He brings up how important all the fight scenes were in this & how he wanted to do everything right. He talks about working with director Kevin Bray on Walking Tall. He says he let them have fun while working on this. He brings up Neal McDonough’s blue eyes & John Beasley as George Foreman numerous times on this track. He jokes about his love scene & he says he wife wasn’t a fan of it. He brings up the stunts & talks about the limitations of a PG-13 rating. This is a really fun audio track & The Rock is hilarious. “Audio Commentary” # 2 with director by Kevin Bray, Editor Robert Ivison, & Director of Photography Glen MacPherson. They mention it’s inspired by a true story. They talk about almost doing a completely different opening to this. They talk about the locations. They mention the fake tattoos The Rock has for this.

They bring up some changes they made. They chat about the great chemistry between The Rock & Johnny Knoxville. They mention the difficulties of building the monster truck in this. They bring up the music & the soundtrack used for Walking Tall. They go into detail about various technical aspects of the production.  They chat about every fight scene being different in this feature. They talk about how they put together the final big action scenes in this. This audio track was completely different compared to the first one which is a nice option to have some variety. They are more serious & technical here. “Fight the Good Fight Stunts Featurette” is almost 9 minutes. The Rock introduces the extra before it starts. Various cast & crew members break down all the fight scenes from the film. “Alternate Ending” is a little over a minute & it’s a different approach to the end. “Bloopers” is 48 seconds & it features some hilarious goofs. “Photo Gallery” that has a variety of promotional shots & other pictures from the production. 3 “Deleted Scenes” were cut from the final film.  You get a “Theatrical Trailer” for Walking Tall plus lots of other trailers from MVD releases which include Barbershop, Barbershop 2, Black Eagle, Blast, Chokeslam, Crazy Six, Lionheart, Man from Earth: Holocene, Out of Time, Return of Swamp Thing, & The Violence Movie. It also includes a slipcover. MVD Marquee managed to bring back all the original extras from the DVD release that were excluded on the previous bare bones blu ray release. It’s one of the better remakes in recent years & it’s awesome to see it get proper treatment in high definition. HIGHLY recommended, it’s available everywhere right now. CHECK IT OUT!!!!