'12 Rounds' review

John Cena (Credit: Patti Perret/20th Century Fox)

One year after New Orleans police officer Danny Fisher (John Cena) causes the death of criminal Miles Jackson's (Aidan Gillen) girlfriend, Jackson escapes from prison and forces Fisher to endure 12 challenges in order to save the life of his own girlfriend (Ashley Scott).

The buzz: Professional wrestler Cena follows up his unspectacular movie debut (2006's "The Marine," also involving a kidnapped love interest), while the long, slow, sad decline of one time A-list action director Renny Harlin ("Die Hard 2," "Cliffhanger") continues. At least this project made it to theaters, unlike Harlin's previous effort, "Cleaner" starring Samuel L. Jackson and Eva Mendes. But given the lack of advance screenings for critics—never a positive sign—is that a good thing?

The verdict: Since "WWE Smackdown!" has been shuffled off to pseudo-network myNetworkTV can't we get WWE Entertainment films banned from theaters? "12 Rounds" sure makes a good case for it. Calling the movie hopelessly generic is an insult to mediocrity and complaining about its shaky internal logic (Why does Jackson go to such elaborate extremes? How did he orchestrate it all?) requires the generous assumption that it has any to begin with. Cena is actually not as bad as the movie he's trapped in, but seeing even a Hollywood hack like Harlin slump to this level is embarrassing. And assuming that audiences are dumb enough to pay money for a movie that should've premiered on Spike TV is the worst kind of cynicism. Don't fall for it.

Did you know? Wonder why some actors prefer TV to film? Gillen, Scott and co-stars Steve Harris and Brian White have had supporting roles on "The Wire," "Jericho," "The Practice" and "The Shield" respectively. All series that couldn't produce an episode as pointless  as "12 Rounds" if they tried.

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