We would have pounced on The Rock’s movie career far earlier if we had realized that he was truly cooking up a career as the biggest star in the world.
The Rundown, which had Seann William Scott and a cameo from Arnold Schwarzenegger transferring the action torch to this upstart—the man who would be Dwayne Johnson—was at least tucked away among those early duds Doom and Be Cool, so we would have smelled them out.
Johnson added movies like Walking Tall to his imposing CV, making him the action star of the mid-aughts.
He also turned towards family comedy, following in the footsteps of his action forefathers, releasing The Game Plan, The Tooth Fairy, and Race to Witch Mountain to the delight, we suppose, of audiences.
The man born Dwayne Johnson, the first third-generation Superstar in WWE history, was destined for sports entertainment immortality from birth. Still, it was tougher to foresee his climb to the position of a pop culture hero.
Since his 1996 Survivor Series debut as a jovial good guy, The Brahma Bull has gone on to win eight WWE Championships, headline WrestleMania, host “Saturday Night Live,” pen a New York Times bestselling autobiography, star in movies like “Fast Five” and “The Game Plan,” which have collectively grossed billions of dollars. He’s only getting started, which is terrific.
1. Moana (2016)
A bold teen sets sail on a dangerous expedition to save her people. Moana meets the formerly mighty demigod Maui along the road, who aids her in her quest to become a skilled Wayfinder.
Together, they embark on an action-packed journey across the seas, stumbling upon colossal beasts and improbable challenges.
Along the process, Moana completes her ancestors’ lengthy quest and learns the one thing she had always wanted.
The film Moana depicts the tale of a young Pacific Peoples girl, the chief’s daughter.
To fulfill her destiny, defeat a colossal crab, make friends with a demigod, and bring back the goddess’s heart to the mother island Te Fiti, she must leave her family and disobey the rules of her people.
Moana is mighty, bold, and proud to be herself, where the girl came from, and where she’s headed.
She is portrayed with young vigor and power by newcomer Auli’i Cravalho. She is a welcome change from the white Disney characters we’ve seen in recent years because she is magical, intense, and brown.
Unfortunately, PI activists and academics claim Moana falls short regarding Polynesian and Pacific Islander representation.
Where to watch – Disney Plus, ROW8, Prime Video, Vudu, Apple TV, or Redbox
2. Fighting With My Family (2019)
Paige and her brother Zak hail from tight-knit wrestling families and are ecstatic to have the opportunity to try out for the WWE.
But when only Jessica is selected for the demanding training program, She is compelled to go from her family and independently navigate this new, competitive world.
Finally, Paige’s journey tests her resolve and forces her to prove to the world that what makes her special also can make her renowned.
Florence Pugh portrays the Norwich child who became WWF star Paige in Stephen Merchant’s heartwarming version of a popular Channel 4 documentary, with wrestling tips from The Man himself, Dwayne Johnson.
But Battling with My Family’s strongest suit is an effective use of emotion. For lovers of sports movies, the main joys—from pre-ring pep talks to family cheering moments on TV—are well-known and engaging.
The main distinction is that there is no love interest in sight; this sports movie focuses on a girl and their relationships with her family and other women.
In the end, Paige discovers the advantages of cooperating with, rather than competing with, her female rivals—indeed, a lesson for the Time’s Up era.
Where to watch – Prime Video, Redbox., Apple TV, or Vudu
3.The Other Guys (2010)
Desk-bound NYPD detectives Gamble (Will Ferrell) and Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) don’t make headlines for their daily work, in contrast to their brave coworkers on the force.
While Hoitz is eager to return to the streets and establish himself, Gamble loves his job as a paper pusher.
The two officers finally got to show their other officers that they were up to the task when a seemingly unimportant case turned out to be a significant matter.
The fourth film Will Ferrell and writer-director Adam McKay have worked on together feature laugh-out-loud comedy that is ultimately throwaway and has conflicting implications about stalled masculine maturation.
Mark Wahlberg plays Ferrell’s partner, a mild-mannered New York police officer who feels most at ease behind his desk and is desperate to atone for accidentally shooting Yankees star Derek Jeter in the knee.
Where to watch – Netflix, Prime Video, Vudu, ROW8, or Redbox
4. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
When four high school students come across an ancient video game system, they are pulled into the game’s rainforest setting and turned into their chosen adult avatars.
They learn that you have to survive Jumanji as well as play it.
They must embark on the riskiest journey of their lives , learn
If players want to win the game and exit the virtual world, they must change how they view themselves and 20 years ago, what Alan Parrish left behind.
Otherwise, they’ll be stuck there forever.
Jumanji is a very entertaining game, but after you’ve played it, you’ll never want to repeat the experience, so it lacks replay value.
Players receive three lives with which to face various challenges in an interactive, immersive, and risky game that transports them deep into a forest.
Where to watch – Spectrum TV, STARZ, Prime Video, Vudu, ROW8, Redbox. or Apple TV on your Roku device
5. Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)
Friends Martha, Fridge, and Bethany return to the game to find Spencer as he ventures back into the wondrous land of Jumanji and brings him back.
However, the game has now become broken and is resisting.
Everything the pals think they know about Jumanji will change as they realize there are more hurdles and dangers to confront.
Jake Kasdan, the author, and director, also provides different delights.
The movie offers every one of different genders, races, and ages the ability to identify with everyone and their horse, as opposed to men associating with the strength of the male protagonist.
The narrative isn’t propelled by a single male protagonist; rather, it is fueled by the hilarious sight of multiple protagonists snatching up identities.
A good 45 years after Mulvey’s essay, many action movies still serve as a somber, stuffy celebration of unified male power.
However, Jumanji demonstrates that switching to a new, more variable, and unpredictable level might be more enjoyable.
Where to watch – Spectrum TV, Prime Video, Vudu, ROW8, Apple TV, or Redbox
6. Furious 7 (2015)
Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker), and the rest of the team have. After eliminating the global terrorist Owen Shaw, the group split up so they could resume more normal lives. Owen’s older brother, Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), is eager to exact retribution.
In return for helping to free a kidnapped criminal mastermind who has created a potent monitoring program, a cunning government agent promises to assist Dom, and the company takes care of Shaw.
Chris Morgan, a screenwriter who has written four earlier chapters, is familiar with the process. Romance (Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez reignite Dom and Letty’s love story), intrigue, retaliation, wicked deeds, retribution, and the climactic fight-and-chase sequences make up the personal melodrama (some awkward emotional moments linger for too long).
Millions of viewers are anticipating whiney Roman’s (Tyrese Gibson) quips and Tej’s (Ludacris) tech fix for an issue, and Morgan doesn’t let them down. In contrast to the one created by Gary Scott Thompson back in 2001, he doesn’t let the characters develop all that much. He pays more attention to their character traits, interpersonal bonds, and group dynamics.
Where to watch – Hulu and Sling
7. Fast Five (2011)
Since breaking her brother Dom (Vin Diesel) out of detention, ex-cop Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) and Mia Torretto (Jordana Brewster) have been hopping borders to avoid capture. Before they can finally achieve their freedom, they must perform one last task in Rio de Janeiro.
Before the federal agent (Dwayne Johnson), following their trial, finds them, Brian and Dom put together their elite team of car racers because they know they must face the dishonest businessman who wants.
May God bless Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, and the rest of the cast as they return with more of the same but larger, quicker, and way louder.
In this Rio de Janeiro-based film, the gang is once more on the wrong side of the law while attempting to carry out their mission: to overthrow a corrupt politician (Joaquim de Almeida, who was excellent in Clear and Present Danger) who is in control of the favelas.
On the ride is Dwayne Johnson, playing the muscular officer attempting to stop them. There is arguably even more shooting and driving than in F&F4, with the extended car chase conclusion easily ranking as the greatest and most creative one thus far in the series.
Where to watch – Peacock TV, ROW8, Prime Video, Vudu, or Redbox
8. Central Intelligence (2016)
Bob Stone (Dwayne Johnson), bullied as a teenager for being overweight, arrives at his class reunion looking trim and toned.
He meets Calvin Joyner (Kevin Hart), a quick-witted accountant who regrets his heyday as a star athlete, there.
Stone is a deadly CIA operative now, and he needs Calvin’s aptitude with numbers to save the compromised American spy satellite network.
Together, the ex-classmates face shootouts, espionage, and double-crosses as they attempt to stop global anarchy.
The story is pitiful despite all the chuckles and the lighthearted sentiments or themes of self-assurance/self-esteem, living up to expectations, satisfaction against higher social rankings, and especially the idea of overcoming fear or bullying.
The clichéd superspy idea is tedious, even when used as a justification to give Johnson and Hart opportunities to capitalize on their differences (while strangely veering away from racial gags).
It’s so generic and full of story holes that the directors purposefully ignore them since they see this project as a simple comedy, so it can’t support a two-hour running duration.
Where to watch – Spectrum TV, Prime Video, Vudu, or Redbox
9. The Rundown (2003)
The Rock’s character Beck is a tight-lipped bounty hunter who refuses to use a gun and does any task without hesitation.
When Walker (William Lucking), Beck’s employer, sends him to the Amazon to find Walker’s arrogant son Travis (Seann William Scott), Beck finds a community ruled by a despotic treasure hunter (Christopher Walken). Beck and Travis must cooperate to survive, and they cannot let their feelings for a mysterious rebel (Rosario Dawson) interfere.
The Rundown is calorie-dense, easy to consume in small amounts, and chunky.
Like a rocky road, if you leave it sitting around, it will inevitably attract flies; more importantly, too much of it will probably make you sick.
Let me be clear: I enjoy Rock. He has what they used to call “moxie,” and because of his mixed-race heritage, he might be the first action hero to cross over to appeal to both black and white viewers.
He is entertaining to watch for that reason alone. Still, as any decent WWF fan worth their salt (Werner Herzog, for example) already knows, he also exudes superstar charisma in spades. It’s very close.
Where to watch – Tubi – Free Movies & TV, Prime Video, Vudu, Apple TV, or Redbox
10. The Fate Of The Furious (2017)
The world-traveling team has established a normal existence now that Dom and Letty are married, Brian & Mia are retired, & the rest of the crew has been cleared of all charges.
They soon encounter an unforeseen obstacle when Dom is forced to turn on them all by a mysterious woman known only as Cipher.
The newest chapter, The Fate of the Furious, is a collaboration to stop Cipher from creating havoc and save the man who gave them a family. Prime example: If it’s nail-biting drag races you’re after, skip these movies and contact RuPaul.
Fear not; the movies haven’t forgotten about any of it.
Betraying expectations does not lead to being one of the most prosperous franchises in history. Beginning with a brief nod to its inspirations, Fate of the Furious allows Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel, of course) to demonstrate his racing prowess in some low-stakes street action. The film’s first sequence, which is set during his honeymoon in Havana, has everything a Fast race should have, including the street-level camera whiz-bang, the corny insults, and the ridiculously souped-up foolishness of the competition itself. It’s thrilling.
Where to watch – Prime Video, Vudu, Redbox. or Apple TV on your Roku device
11. Jungle Cruise (2021)
Come with us on the trip of a lifetime on Disney’s JUNGLE CRUISE with wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff and courageous scholar Dr. Lily Houghton, starring fan favorites Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt.
Lily departs from London, England, for the Amazon rainforest, where she hires the dubious services of Frank to take her downriver aboard La Quila, his rickety but endearing canoe. Lily is driven to find an old tree with extraordinary healing properties and the potential to transform medicine.
The odd team faces countless obstacles as they embark on this lengthy mission.
Where to watch – Disney plus
12. Snitch (2013)
Jason receives a required 10-year sentence at 18 after being captured with a package containing illegal substances, despite his ignorance of its contents.
Dwayne Johnson’s character as his father, businessman John Matthews, is distraught. John asks to be sent undercover after Jason declines a chance to have his sentence reduced by fabricating evidence to blame someone else.
However, the already risky mission turns deadly when John outs a key figure in the Mexican drug business.
Where to watch – HBO Max or Netflix
13. Hercules (2014)
Despite his legendary accomplishments, the mortal woman is haunted by his sad past. Zeus’s son Hercules (Dwayne Johnson), is now a roaming mercenary who only fights for money, accompanied by a group of devoted followers, including Amphiarus (Ian McShane) and Autolycus.
Hercules, though, must rediscover his inner hero when the good-natured king of Thrace and his daughter ask for assistance in putting an end to a brutal warlord.
This pathetic excuse for a warmer months spectacle—PG-13-friendly levels of gore and sexual orientation and a single F-bomb notwithstanding—appears to have been written with undemanding toddlers in mind.
The veteran of Hercules’s two credited screenwriters has established a career from scribbling direct-to-video Disney titles.
This atonal creation veers haphazardly between tractor-trailer reverence and mouth camp, with no shortage of possibilities for the inexorable Rifftrax accompanist.
It is indebted to fight scenes made up of either trailer-ready snippets of very well combat or stretched montages of despatch nemeses, all edited with minimal spatial clarity. Aside from being devoted but ultimately unsuccessful.
Where to watch – PayneTV.com, Spectrum TV, Prime Video, Vudu, Apple TV, or Redbox
14. Rampage: Big Meets Bigger (2018)
Davis Okoye, a primatologist, and George, a highly intelligent silverback gorilla in his care since birth, have an unbreakable friendship.
George, a wolf, and a reptile grow to enormous sizes due to a genetic experiment gone wrong.
Okoye joins forces with the military, a discredited genetic engineer, and the mutated beasts as they set out on a path of destruction to obtain an antidote.
Where to watch – Netflix
15. Get Smart (2008)
The Chief (Alan Arkin) is forced to elevate his eager analyst Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) to the field agent position when members of the evil crime organization KAOS attack the American espionage agency Control.
Working with seasoned Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway), Smart juggles inexperience, zeal, and incompetence as he attempts to derail a world-dominance conspiracy hatched by the cunning KAOS commander, Siegfried (Terence Stamp).
Where to watch – Hulu, Redbox., Vudu, Prime Video, or Apple TV on your Roku device
16. Pain & Gain (2013)
The Sun Gym manager in Miami in the 1990s, Danny Lupo (Mark Wahlberg), determines that extortion is the only way to fulfill his aspiration of the American dream.
He enlists bodybuilders Paul (Dwayne Johnson) and Adrian (Anthony Mackie) as his accomplices in accomplishing his objective.
After numerous failed attempts, they kidnap wealthy businessman Victor Kershaw (Tony Shalhoub) and persuade him to turn over all of his assets to them.
However, when Kershaw escapes unharmed, officials hesitate to accept his account.
Where to watch – Prime Video, Paramount Plus, The Roku Channel, The Roku Channel, Spectrum TV, EPIX, EPIX NOW, Vudu, Redbox. or Apple TV on your Roku device
17. Skyscraper (2018)
Former FBI officer and US military veteran Will Sawyer currently evaluates skyscraper security.
The tallest and safest skyscraper in the world catches fire while he is on assignment in China, and Will is falsely accused of starting it.
He must discover those responsible, clear his identity, and find a way to save his relatives when they get trapped inside the inferno while he is on the run and a wanted man.
Where to watch – Prime Video, Paramount Plus, The Roku Channel, The Roku Channel, Spectrum TV, EPIX, EPIX NOW, Vudu, Redbox. or Apple TV on your Roku device
18. San Andreas (2015)
An otherwise perfect day turns tragic when the San Andreas fault in California, which is responsible for the strongest recorded earthquake of magnitude 9, strikes.
To transport his estranged wife (Carla Gugino) but their only child (Alexandra Daddario) to safety, Ray Gaines (Dwayne Johnson), an LAFD search-and-rescue helicopter pilot, must fly through the devastation from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
Director Brad Peyton, who collaborated with Dwayne Johnson and producer Beau Flynn on Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, is tasked with weaving the narratives into a realistic drama while unfathomable devastation and destruction erupt.
However, there was no indication in that movie that Peyton would be able to let out this beast. The 107 minutes of flawlessly edited (Bob Ducsay, Godzilla), breathtakingly filmed (Steve Yedlin, Carrie), and tastefully decorated (production designer Barry Chusid, A Day After Tomorrow) material includes 1300 visual effects:
- Bridges splitting like breadsticks
- Farms moving like a game of cards
- The Hoover Dam was destroyed
- The skylines of cities collapsing
- A tsunami
There isn’t much time to breathe with Peyton in charge
Where to watch – Freebie TV, HBO Max, Prime Video, Vudu, Redbox. or Apple TV
19. The Mummy Returns (2001)
Rick (Brendan Fraser) & Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) O’Connell have made their home Ten decades after the previous movie’s events, and they are raising their kid in 1935 London. The O’Connells embark on a frantic quest to save the world from horrible evil and to save their kid before it is too late when a series of events results in the resurrection of Imhotep’s (Arnold Vosloo) corpse.
The Mummy Returns, in other words, is just another typical movie.
There are more action scenes, and the overall effects are better.
However, Sommers and his team haven’t yet resolved several technical issues from the first movie, particularly the annoying scarab bugs, which continue to seem CG.
The sand head chasing the airplane, arguably the best effect in the previous film is redone more spectacularly as a water head—make that a wall of water with a head—chasing down an airship.
However, this is less of a stand-alone film than a pastiche of pieces from The Mother, and on rare occasions, the lifting works.
However, more frequently than not, the borrowed parts are failures that were never intended to work;
Where to watch – Prime Video, Vudu, Apple TV, or Redbox
20. The Scorpion King (2002)
The infamous city of Gomorrah, where a wicked king is out to wipe out all the nomadic peoples of the desert, is the setting of the film “The Scorpion King,” inspired by the legendary Egyptian warrior.
The few remaining tribes, which have never been natural allies, must come together or perish. They employ a proficient assassin, Mathayus (The Rock), to assassinate the sorcerer because they know that their adversary depends on his or her visions.
The Rock (real name Dwayne Johnson), a professional wrestler, has every right to claim the Mummy film series and this first spinoff.
He already looks like a cartoon, a hilarious one at that, with his weirdly chiseled countenance, propensity for the occasional arched eyebrow à la Spock, and body that’s right out of the Steve Reeves tradition of hard muscular bodies. The Rock is entertaining despite all the swords-and-sandals hoodoo that makes up Jonathan Hale’s script’s wilting backbone.
The audience kept looking forward to when he would break through that restrained fourth wall and start interacting with the audience, asking them, “Can you believe this nonsense?” with a cheeky smirk.
Where to watch – Roku Channel, STARZ, Prime Video, Vudu, Redbox. or Apple TV