12 Rounds is a
2009 action film directed by
Renny Harlin and produced by
WWE Studios.
It is John Cena's second film, his first being
The Marine. The cast is led by
professional wrestler John Cena,
alongside
Steve Harris, Gonzalo Menendez,
Aidan Gillen,
Brian J. White,
, and
Taylor Cole. The film was released on March 27, 2009
in theaters.
Plot
The film opens in an FBI operation to catch a nearly untraceable, internationally-known terrorist, named Miles Jackson (
Aidan Gillen). New Orleans Police Officer Danny Fisher (
John Cena) and his partner bump into the getaway car of Jackson and his Fiancée (
Taylor Cole). After Danny chases the car on foot, he manages to stop them. Jackson's girlfriend is, however, killed, when she is struck down by a truck after trying to make a run for it. A year later, and Danny and his partner have been promoted to detectives. Jackson has escaped prison and planned his revenge on Fisher in a game he calls "12 Rounds". He kidnaps Fisher's girlfriend Molly Porter (
Ashley Scott) and forces him into a series of dangerous games, carefully plotted throughout the streets of New Orleans. Fisher struggles to keep focus while the obvious ticking clocks and crude consequences that accompany each one of the "rounds" do their best to derail him from rescuing the love of his life before it's too late.
Cast
Music
The score of
12 Rounds was composed by
Trevor Rabin, who had previously worked with director Renny Harlin on
Deep Blue Sea and
Exorcist: The Beginning. He recorded his score with the
Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Eastwood Scoring Stage at
Warner Brothers Studios.
Reception
The filmed opened at number seven at the box office. Gaining an estimate of $1.75 million in its opening day and $5.3 million in its opening weekend and a further $2,498,325 in other countries taking its worldwide total to $16,819,515.
12 Rounds has received generally negative reviews from critics. Some critics have noted the film's similarities to the 1995 movie
Die Hard With a Vengeance.
[IGN:com - 12 Rounds Review"Take one part Blown Away, one part Speed, a whole lot of Die Hard with a Vengeance and -- presto! -- you have a patchwork of every '90s action movie formulaic plot element in one film."] The film ranking website
Rotten Tomatoes reported that only 30% of critics had given the film positive reviews, based upon a sample of 61.
At
Metacritic, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an
average score of 37, based on 11 reviews.
Home video
12 Rounds was released on
DVD,
Blu-ray, and
UMD with an unrated "Extreme Cut" of the film on June 30, 2009.
About 285,779 were sold in the first week, acquiring revenue of $3,131,951.
[www.the-numbers.com/movies/2009/12RDS-DVD.php] As per the latest figures, 452,000 DVD units have been sold, bringing in $7,047,679 in revenue. This does not include Blu-ray sales.
The DVD is a one-disc set that includes:
- Rated and extended “Extreme Cut” of the film
- Commentary by Director Renny Harlin, Writer Daniel Kunka and John Cena
- Two alternate endings
- “Crash Course: John Cena Stunts” featurette
- “Never-before-seen Cena gag reel” featurette
