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John Cena, Steve Harris, Ashley Scott, Aidan Gillen, Brian J. White ... see more see more... , Gonzalo Menendez , Taylor Cole , Kyle Clements , Peter Navy Tuiasosopo , Travis Davis , Nick Gomez , Brian DeCaro , Rosalind Rubin , Billy Slaughter , Kim Collins , Lara Grice , Wayne Ferrara , Douglas M. Griffin , Vincent Flood , Luke Albright , Bryan Johnson , David Frye

WWE star John Cena headlines his sophomore action picture as a police officer whose wife is kidnapped in New Orleans. Daniel Kunka provides the script, with Deep Blue Sea's Renny Harlin handling the d... read more read more...irecting duties for the 20-million-dollar Fox Atomic/WWE Films production. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

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51% liked it

82,321 ratings

Critics

29% liked it

69 critics

PG-13, 1 hr. 48 min.

Directed by: Renny Harlin

Release Date: March 27, 2009

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DVD Release Date: June 30, 2009

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Stats: 5,070 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (5,070)

  • ironclad1609
    December 28, 2011
    ironclad1609
    Renny Harlin was Hollywood next big action expert in the early 90s and has disappeared quite a bit in recent years. Here, his job was to turn Wrestling star John Cena into the next Schwarzenegger, or The Rock. That does work up to a certain degree. Cena is certainly not the film'... read mores biggest problem, even if his acting skills are somewhat limited and he looks funny when he's running. Fact is, the movie has such an insane pace that you sometimes forget to think about the plot holes. The stereotypes and predictable parts well known in the genre are pretty obvious, though. In a way it's actually a remake of Die Hard 3, especially once we learn the bad guy's ulterior motifs. Speaking of the villain, Game of Thrones's Littlefinger Aidan Gillen does a decent job here, but is reduced to the regular lines a bad gets in such films. That goes for most of the dialogs, actually. There's nothing wrong with the action here, even if the editing and always shaky camera work does get tiresome at times. Still, an entertaining film, even if a little more brains wouldn't have hurt.
  • LWOODS04
    September 22, 2011
    LWOODS04
    Cast: Ashley Scott, John Cena, Brian J. White, Steve Harris, Aidan Gillen, Taylor Cole, Lara Grice, Billy Slaughter, Sam Medina, Louis Herthum

    Director: Renny Harlin

    Summary: Helmed by Renny Harlin, this tense actioner stars World Wrestling Entertainment grappler John Cen... read morea as Det. Danny Fisher, a New Orleans cop who must save his kidnapped fiancée, Molly Porter (Ashley Scott), from the clutches of notorious crime lord Miles Jackson (Aidan Gillen). A battle of wits and wills ensues as Fisher is forced to life race around the Big Easy completing 12 near-impossible tasks and solving puzzles dreamed up by Jackson.

    My Thoughts: "This movie was what I kinda expected it to be. Action packed and predictable. The guy saves the girl from the bad guy. Good prevails over evil. It has been told time and time again. Plus John Cena's last movie The Marine was something like this. So hopefully he will try to take on different roles. It was an entertaining movie, action packed. I was surprised that with John Cena being a wrestler (which I don't follow) that he doesn't do bad at acting. Thought he pulled off the role. Didn't care to much for Ashley Scott in this movie though. There were also some cheesy lines. But all in all an OK movie. I, personally enjoyed The Marine more then this one."
  • 76Majikat
    July 29, 2011
    76Majikat
    I'm not the biggest fan of Wrestler turned Actors and it's fair to say if I'd known that was the case with this film I probably would've avoided it, however apart from having been influenced by lots of other films, an being ridiculously unbelievable, it surprisingly kept my atten... read moretion and was a watchable film
  • BEACHBUNNI
    February 23, 2011
    BEACHBUNNI
    John Cena is a New Orleans cop who single handedly catches an international terrorist during a failed FBI bust, but only after aiding in the death of the villains girlfriend. One year later, the bad guy comes-a-knockin.. and makes the detective go through a series of games in exc... read morehange for his wife's life. Later, the cops find out it was all a ruse in order to steal money.
  • bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb1
    July 30, 2010
    bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb1
    i actually thought this was good. it had a lot of action. a decent story. and i thought the idea was cool. theres nothing amazing about the movie but its entertaining. a good action movie. B
  • TheMachinist
    April 1, 2010
    TheMachinist
    This film is so bad that I could not even find a quote and I really don't wanna see '12 Rounds' again...

    I'd like to like this film because of Renny Harlin, the most famous Finnish born director. The man behind such decent action flicks as 'Die Hard 2', 'The Long Kiss Goodnight'... read more and 'Cliffhanger', has been demoted to direct B class action produced by the WWF. Wrestling! Son of a muthaf...

    What went wrong? The change of the millenium didn't do damage to the society but it ruined Harlin's career. After the change we've witnessed such classics as 'Driven', 'The Covenant' and now '12 Rounds', a crappy film starring John Cena, a wrestler on the merge of Hollywood fame... Not.

    '12 Rounds' mimics 'Die Hard 3' and 'Speed' and doesn't even try to hide it. Whilst the two examples are good action semi classics, '12 Rounds' is the worst film that Harlin has defecated since 'Driven'. Cena can not handle a film by himself, which was already proven with 'The Marine'. The action is lame, even with the standards of Harlin, who has been profiled as a director specialized on action. I mean, sweet Jesus... The last scene with the helicopter... Oh, the tension, camerawork! By the way, Cena has to have the best physical fitness level I've seen. He can run thru half the city and not even get exhausted!

    I'd recommend this film to all rednecks who spend their evenings watching wrestling, drinking Budweiser (which happens to be the crapiest beer available) and masturbating their pet frog. An extra half star 'cause of the pug, the best actor in the movie.
  • bbcfloridabound
    February 15, 2010
    bbcfloridabound
    Excellent Film, talk about revenge that?s what this movie is all about. Show the great lengths someone is willing to go to get back at someone. Excellent action packed film, should have went 15 rounds. Have to give it 4 stars. Great on the Big Screen or worth the buy..
  • mrbungle7821
    January 31, 2010
    mrbungle7821
    This action flick bankrolled by World Wrestling Entertainment is an empty and aggravating movie. Let me list the ways this lamebrain action movie fails and flounders. And to be charitable, I?ll do it in only six rounds of concise action.

    Round 1: John Cena is not an actor, li... read moreke at all. The famous pro wrestler has a face that looks to be chiseled from granite, but he more closely resembles a Boris Karlof version of Frankenstein than a ?normal dude.? This is not an attractive man.

    Round 2: the movie strains credibility even for an action movie. The villain reappears with no explanation and begins a series of clever traps that must have involved massive man-hours to conceive and put into order, especially with every last variable taken into account like bus schedules.

    Round 3: The villain is totally non-threatening in every capacity. He acts like an impish teenager instead of a devilish rogue. At one point, I kid you not, he?s rolling around on a bed while he taunts Cena over the phone, like he?s gabbing to a girlfriend. The fact that this dude is a criminal mastermind makes everybody dumber.

    Round 4: The villainous MO is a shameless rip-off of die Hard with a Vengeance. I repeat: a rip-off of the third freaking Die Hard movie, which isn?t terrific anyway. Every little game, every little round, is a puzzle that leads to the next puzzle, and Cena must figure it all out before his time runs out. And it?s all an elaborate ruse to distract the police so that our bad guy can pose as a Federal Reserve moneyman and steal from a bank, more or less just like Die Hard with a Vengeance.

    Round 5: The director is Renny Harlin, whose last watch-able movie involved super intelligent psycho killer sharks. His action choreography relies all too heavily on ridiculously tired action tropes, like having Cena leap hundreds of feet from a helicopter to land safely in a rooftop pool. The erratic camerawork does no favors, aping the visual style of better movies. Even Harlin himself has done everything here before and better.

    Round 6: The bad guy blames Cena for his girlfriend?s death and thus puts him through this day from hell. He blames Cena instead of blaming the driver of the car that plowed into her, his girlfriend for choosing to run right into the path of an oncoming vehicle and for being complicit in a murderous jewelry heist, or even himself for putting everybody in danger in the first place. His motivation is fairly faulty. He might as well blame the manufacturer of the automobile for lackluster brakes.

    I?ll cut it off from there to be merciful. 12 Rounds is a classic example of a cookie-cutter, brainless, preposterous, and uninventive action movie that typifies the Hollywood assembly line. It?s ludicrous from start to finish and your eyes will glaze over from watching such stolid action scenes without a hint of creative impulse.

    Nate's Grade: D
  • fb733768972
    January 10, 2010
    fb733768972
    This was very entertaining! I would say it's John Cena's best work yet!
  • DouglasWCollins
    December 4, 2009
    DouglasWCollins
    Did not expect much of this movie but man was it really intense. It pretty much boiled down to what die hard 3 would have been if Harlin had been allowed to direct it.

View All 12 Rounds Reviews

Critic Reviews

Rob Nelson
September 1, 2009
Rob Nelson, Variety

Heavy on stunts but light on plausibility, humor, surprise, visual ingenuity or psychological depth. Full Review

Roger Moore
March 30, 2009
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel

12 Rounds is an occasionally exciting but always empty action movie experience. Full Review

James Berardinelli
March 30, 2009
James Berardinelli, ReelViews

12 Rounds is the unholy stepchild of Die Hard with a Vengeance and Speed, starring a man whose lack of range makes Steven Seagal seem nuanced by comparison. Full Review

John Anderson
March 30, 2009
John Anderson, Newsday

The future of vacuous action movies is clearly with the likes of Cena, humans who resemble characters from video games, albeit without the acting chops. Full Review

Nathan Lee
March 30, 2009
Nathan Lee, New York Times

Renny Harlin's 12 Rounds satisfies, on the most primitive level, the expectations for a second-rate action flick. Full Review

Gary Goldstein
March 30, 2009
Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times

Director Renny Harlin keeps the wall-to-wall action hurtling along at such breakneck speed, that it's not hard to get swept up in the crash-and-explode craziness of it all. Full Review

Maitland McDonagh
March 30, 2009
Maitland McDonagh, Hollywood Reporter

Wrestling star John Cena is the dead weight that drags down this brainless but energetic action picture.

Clark Collis
March 30, 2009
Clark Collis, Entertainment Weekly

Harlin makes good use of both the architecture of the city and of his formidably muscled leading man. But you will probably find yourself praying for this duel's knock-out punch to arrive long before ... Full Review

Tom Russo
March 30, 2009
Tom Russo, Boston Globe

Time for a revenge game cribbed right from the Die Hard series (and directed, hardly coincidentally, by Renny Harlin, who's an awfully long way from Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger here). Full Review

Leigh Paatsch
March 27, 2009
Leigh Paatsch, New York Post

A big, dumb lug of an action movie, 12 Rounds is fronted by a big, dumb lug named John Cena. Full Review

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