12 Rounds: Extreme Cut Blu-ray Review

Professional WWE wrestler and hip-hop music artist turned actor John Cena leads a nice cast of stars in the June 30th Blu-ray movie release of the Renny Harlin directed action suspense thriller 12 Rounds: Extreme Cut.

New Orleans Police Detective Danny Fisher (Cena) stops a brilliant thief (Aiden Gillen) from getting away with a multi-million dollar heist. In the midst of the confrontation, the thief’s girlfriend is accidentally killed. Once he escapes from prison, the criminal mastermind wants revenge. Rather than getting it quickly, he devises a detailed 12 round battle with mission impossible-style puzzles and tasks the must be complted in order for Danny to protect his kidnapped girlfriend, Molly (Ashley Scott).

Miles Jackson (Gillen) is a thief who has seemingly given up his interest in the pefect heist to focus on his revenge. After escaping prison in less than one year, his first act is to find Danny Fisher to seek his vengeance. After kidnapping Molly and blowing up Danny’s house, he explains the rules of the 12 Rounds game that Danny must complete in order to rescue Molly.

As the story of 12 Rounds plays out, the audience is treated to what became a pleasantly surprising action movie. The trend of wrestling and other action sport stars entering the movie scene has been met with mixed results. With his entertainment background, John Cena is a talented and believable action star. This definitely makes this movie much more appealing and entertaining than it would have been if he weren’t.

Along with the action you would expect in 12 Rounds, a clever and subtle plot plays out over the course of the movie, with some surprises held for the conclusion of the story. Miles and Danny engage in a real battle of wits. Though not the best action suspense movie of the year, 12 Rounds is worthwhile and entertaining for mature action fans. With the unrated Extreme Cut, audiences of older teens and adults work best.

Blu-ray special features in 12 Rounds: Extreme Cut include:

• Theatrical Version and Unrated Version of the Film
• 2 Alternate Endings with Optional Commentaries
• Streetcar Crossing: Film with Caution Featurette
• A Crash Course: John Cena Stunts Featurette
• 12 Bonus Round Featurettes
• Never-Before-Cena Gag Reel
• Keeping Score: The Music of 12 Rounds Featurette
• Round and Round with Renny and John Featurette
• Viral Videos: Hands and Helicopter
• Unrated Version Commentary with Director Renny Harlin
• Unrated Version Commentary by Writer Daniel Kunka and Actor John Cena
• Digital Copy of 12 Rounds for Portable Media Players (Unrated)

• Actors: John Cena, Ashley Scott
• Directors: Renny Harlin
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• Blu-ray Release Date: June 30, 2009
• Run Time: 108 minutes

Blu-ray Review by Neil of Movie Room Reviews