12 Rounds: Critic Reviews

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 it actually does.

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

It remains to be seen whether this crude, dumbly entertaining outing will encourage the director to tackle more of the Greek myths.

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).

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

as a fast-food action director, Renny Harlin still delivers a fun movie

Awfully forgettable, but Harlin makes things go boom again, with ruthless efficiency that puts the flick just over the hump of the straight-to-cable Jeff Speakman school. [Blu-ray]

With all the nuance of a fist to the groin, ... (it's) the kind of forgettable film that isn't impossible to enjoy but that only a Cena fan could truly love.

A very satisfying and well made action thriller that could only be improved if Arnold Schwarzenegger was the star.

With its wonderful post-Katrina NOLA setting and the standard stunt spectacle as only Harlin can deliver, 12 Rounds is actually quite good. It's no masterpiece, but then again, few post-millennial adrenaline rushes have been.

...a decent action movie that could've been a great one...

Apart from the palpably improbable storyline, Harlan shows a massive disregard for characterisation, and so much bang-bang editing that you scarcely know where you are.

Cena has the sort of likeable air that suggests he could just make it as an action movie type. However, it won't be thanks to this movie.

Loud, idiotic nonsense.

While 12 Rounds is well above average for an action movie, it's important not to get too carried away. This is, after all, a picture in which leading lady Ashley Scott is less appealing than her pet pug.

Skip the cop rot - it will damage your brain.

Yet another American thriller with little to engage the brain.

Fun, witless and pretension-free, 12 Rounds is Die Hard meets Saw meets WWE: pure chest-thumping testosterone cinema, edited like a jackhammer and delivered at thrash-punk velocity.

While the plot is completely daft the film is also engagingly diverting.

The kind of passable in-flight entertainment you could watch half-asleep.