The Road Ahead For The Rock  

A Partial Interview From filmmonthly.com Discussing His Next Projects

Johnson has been acknowledged as the successor of Schwarzenegger, who literally passed the baton to the actor in his previous action comedy The Rundown. Yet Johnson has chosen to pick projects carefully, preferring to take the action genre to a new, smarter level. "I always just look for a good story and not only that but I like movies of that old fashioned era from the 70's as well as the early 80's, like a walking tall, like a Billy Jack. Clint Eastwood is my favorite actor, some Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen, movies where they take time in telling the story. So for me, I can only say those are the roles that I'm attracted to and it was great to have to opportunity to."

Those opportunities are continuing for the actor who will don a goatee and an afro wig in order to play a gay bouncer with singing aspirations in Be Cool, the sequel to Get Shorty. "It was so funny because Elmore Leonard wrote it and when he wrote the original draft, Chili Palmer (John Travolta) looks across the room and he sees Elliot Wilhem, Samoan, 30, can raise one eyebrow, trying to act, wants to be - can sing - and gay, and I was like "Wow, that's interesting" and I didn't actually speak to Elmore but according to those who have already talked to him it was like "No, no, I wrote that, based on The Rock, not necessarily the gay part but based on him, never ever thinking that he would ever play the role. Before you know it, here I am, playing the role." He is clearly having a blast shooting this one. "It's been fantastic.  I get a chance to work with John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Vince Vaughn, great for me." Dwayne says that certain types of comedy come natural to him. "I know that self-deprecating comedy comes easy to me. I don't think I can go out and do stand-up or anything like that. I can tell bad jokes but that's about it," he says, laughingly.

From Be Cool, Johnson returns to full-on action mode in Spy Hunter, based on a video game. Hearing him talk about this film reminds one of an excited kid eager to open his cool new present. "I was just up in the room and there was this awesome secretive meeting. We took out all of the concepts and what the car looks like. It's a movie based off a video game and revolves around this awesome car. GM is making this amazing car that breaks off into a boat, a 3 wheeler, into a motor cycle - it's really incredible," says Johnson, excitingly.

As for The Rock, wrestler, he is not about to completely abandon the profession that moulded his very real persona. "Because of the responsibility you have when you take a role like Spy Hunter or this movie, we have a responsibility to the studio, to the actors, to the crew, to production to be 100% focused, but I love wrestling, I've always said that and that's why I went back to Westlemania, where we had a big show like a couple of weeks and it was awesome. A lot of my buddies go back to theatre which I understand, because they go back to get that live interaction. For me wrestling is my theatre, the ring is my stage and I was having a lot fun."

by Paul Fischer

The Rock / Walking Tall Interview

filmmonthly.com

      Rockin' Hollywood    

'Walking Tall' opens at no.2 at the Box Office 

The Rock is Walking Tall in Hollywood with his new hit movie.  A remake of a '70's movie, based on the unusual life of Buford Puser, takes a few different twist from the original movie and life of Mr. Puser to tell the Life of Chris Vaughn.  Vaughn (The Rock) returns to his small home town after serving in the military's special forces to go back to the simple life and follow in his fathers footsteps at the towns local lumber mill.  Vaughn finds the mill is closed his father is out of work and the town is overrun with corruption, drugs and crime.  At the heart of all the new evil that has taken over his home town, Vaughn finds his high school rival Jay Hamilton, Jr. (Neal McDonough) who has basically inherited the town and setup a Casino that has become the source of all the corruption.  Vaughn refuses to sit still and let his town turn into a wreck of lawlessness and he takes matters in his own hands.  I won't spoil the movie but this is the basic premise of the movie and all hell breaks loose as The Rock starts kickin' some ass and takin' some names.  The Rock is joined by Johnny Knoxville who plays The Rock's best friend from high school who has gone out looking for his dream to be  a rock star only to return back to his home town after getting tangled up in drugs and going to prison.  Knoxville and The Rock have a good chemistry and are pretty damn funny at times, much better than The Rock's most recent sidekick, Seann William Scott in The Rundown; who slowed the movie down with his stupid attempts at being funny.  Ashley Scott who plays Deni, Vaughn's ex-girl friend from high school, is absolutely smoking' hot. I can't remember really seeing her in anything  before this movie but she is amazing, look for the Casino scene when The Rock first sees her again.  Overall, this movie is a really good action flick and something I could watch again but it is definitely not the Rock's masterpiece.  It is  the best of his movies, in my opinion, but The Rock hasn't seen his shining moment yet.  Critics are taking him as a legit actor and not a joke like Hulk Hogan was and I believe we will see The Rock in something really huge in the next couple of years that will give him the full superstar crossover from wrestling megastar to Hollywood megastar.  Don't forget your roots Rock, we want to see you in the ring!  Walking Tall, check it out and support The Great One, If Ya Smell What The Rock Is Cooking.

-Dragon

https://www.angelfire.com/therockpage

    Rock N' Sock Go Bust   

Mick & The Rock Lose to Evolution at WXX

The WWE has billed their twentieth anniversary edition of Wrestlemania as the event "where it all begins again."  I have yet to see the entire Wrestlemania but after viewing the Rock N' Sock/Evolution match I can say one thing about that part of Wrestlemania and that it absolutely SUCKED!  I'm sure there were good parts of the whole shebang but the fact that the Rock lost to freaking Randy Orton and Evolution was crap.  Okay, okay I know The Rock was basically there to give Mick some legitimacy against all the firepower of Triple H & Rick Flair's Evolution but a loss is a loss.  Overall the result of the entire event were kind of less than grand on "the grandest stage of them all."  Benoit beats Triple H & Shawn Michaels to win the World Heavyweight Championship.  It's all a nice story but this is freakin' Wrestlemania, where you put your megastars in the limelight, especially for WXX and they have Benoit win the title?  He's a good wrestler who has been around for a while, so maybe that is a legit argument but the guy doesn't have "it."  He will be remember as one of the best wrestlers in history, on the level of Tito Santana, Jimmy Snuka or Greg Valentine but he isn't a living legend like Stone Cold, Triple H or The Rock.  There was a couple of matches that became the highlights of the event; the Christian/Jericho match up and the Undertaker/Kane match up.  Eddie Guererro beating Kurt Angle, COME ON!  The match up that should have been built up and took center stage would have been Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar.  This would have been HUGE if it was done right with Lesnar holding the WWE title and Goldberg holding the World Title in a match to bring the titles together for the first time in history.  Maybe a quadruple threat match with The Rock, Triple H, Goldberg and Lesnar for both of the titles, with special guest referee Stone Cold!  WWE was treating this Wrestlemania like is was the biggest thing since Hulk body slammed Andre but it was smoke and mirrors.  Bring back Hogan for another go around, have Mr. McMahon and his whole family in the mix!!  This lack of competition is making everyone soft and if they don't watch it TNA will be the next WCW!  Okay, my rant is over and the bottom line is WXX was disappointing and the wrestlers were misused.  Not enough Rocky bottom line.  I hope we see more of The Great One this year and with Lesnar & Goldberg gone the WWE could use Rocky.  That's my POV and Maiviamania Forever!

-Dragon

https://www.angelfire.com/therockpage