Now updated with Jumanji: The Next Level!

Over the last 20+ years, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has become one of the most recognizable names, faces, and physiques in the world. The rare individual to make the jump from pro wrestler to top-tier Hollywood talent, Johnson has been building his filmography for both television and the big screen since the late 1990s. As an actor, he now tallies 100 credits; he's padding that list of credits out with and endless stream of new ideas as a producer, further shaping his brand and delivering original ideas tailored to what Johnson himself and his legions of fans want to see. All that being said, his career in Hollywood is just getting started and we expect many more decades ahead for The Rock both in front of the camera and behind it. With that in mind, we wanted to get caught up on all of Johnson's major movies so far in order to take a look at his progress as an actor along the way, discover some hidden gems, and recommend some performances you may have missed.

It's not all going to be pretty, of course. There were a lot of rough patches along the way that Johnson had to weather well before the success of things like The Fast and the Furious franchise and the formation of his own banner, Seven Bucks Productions. But in each of these performances you can see the innate talent possessed by Johnson and how each role shaped and molded what his persona would become in the years that followed. We wanted to revisit where Johnson has been in order to get a better handle on just where his career is going.

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Now, you can skip on down to the rankings if you'd like, but to find out why this list is more than just a Buzzfeed style list, I'd like to tell you a little story: Johnson is a sort of hometown hero of mine. Granted, he only lived in the Lehigh Valley for a brief period of time (and he totally went to the wrong school; Go Rovers!), but his insane success left a strong impression on the community, helped by the fact that he would occasionally return home to attend a Freedom football game early in his career. (Johnson probably doesn't remember the time spent there so fondly if his Ballers character Spencer Strasmore is any indication.) Oddly enough, our families even crossed paths; my dad was a power-lifter at the time, Johnson's dad is the storied pro wrestler Rocky Johnson, and somehow the two of them came to occupy the same circle for a brief while. (I've still got an autographed picture from the elder Johnson that reads "To David, Best in Sports" for what it's worth.)

A few years later, my brother--a Freedom alumnus--and I marveled at the growing fandom for Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson after some hard luck in college football and some hard-fought years in the squared circle of professional wrestling. Here was a guy who, for his time, lived in our neck of the woods, only to escape and claw his way to the top, first as the People's Champion, and eventually as Forbes' top-grossing Hollywood actor. There's something inspirational in that, whoever you are, but for those of us who have some infinitesimally small claim to fame from having been within The Rock's vicinity, his success story really hits home. So it's with that backstory in mind that I visited--and in most cases revisited--all of The Rock's major movies, including some minor parts along the way.

Here's a look at The Rock's movies, ranked worst to first:

Longshot (2001)

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Hey, we all have to start somewhere. After all of that glowing praise I shared above, it's tough to take The Rock down a peg or two, but this movie deserves to be wiped off the face of the Earth. The production company tried to do so, it seems, and Johnson probably wishes they succeeded, but "Because Internet" we have his first legit big-screen role. Spoiler alert: It's a very bad thing.

Longshot is a real enigma of a movie--How did this get made? How did they land all those musically talented cameos?--until you realize that it was slapped together as a promotional piece displaying the acting abilities of boyband members and others signed to the late Lou Pearlman's Trans Continental Records. (It did earn a release in Germany, however, due to the musicians' popularity there.) That explains a lot, but the fact that Pearlman later plead guilty to a host of charges tied to accusations of running a massive Ponzi scheme explains even more. The Making of Longshot, however? That's a movie I'd like to see.

In the meantime, you too can enjoy this brief appearance by The Rock as a very handsome mugger who inconceivably gets beaten up by a guy half his size:

Southland Tales (2006)

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I honestly had to wrestle with whether to give the bottom spot to The Rock's 30-second performance as "Mugger" or his time spent as a very confused man/men in a very confusing movie. Southland Tales almost nabbed the dubious distinction of being The Rock's worst movie, but it managed to take the next best spot by virtue of the fact that Longshot is barely a movie at all and this follow-up from Richard Kelly of Donnie Darko fame is slightly more so.

Kelly's Donnie Darko is a well-deserved cult classic; Southland Tales is what happens when a studio doesn't understand a previous film's appeal and opts to give the filmmaker carte blanche in a misguided attempt to tap into their artistic genius. The problem here is that no one, presumably, ever told Kelly that this rambling, two-and-a-half hour mess of a plot was both incomprehensible and nonsensical in its pretentiousness. It's basically a movie version of a Philosophy 101 class, a sci-fi Wikipedia entry, and a post-9/11 paranoia/conspiracy theory all mashed together. So while it was a joy to see Johnson and Seann William Scott appear in the same film again--see The Rundown later on in this list--the casting was way, way off for this movie. And that's just the least of it.

Johnson's character is the amnesia-stricken and improbably named Boxer Santeros, an action-movie star with a movie screenplay that prophesies the End of the World. Oh and he crosses paths with psychic porn star Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and, yeah, that's about all you need to know. Avoid this mess at all costs.

The Mummy Returns (2001)

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After 5 years as a pro wrestler, taking on such names as Flex Kavana, Rocky Maivia, and eventually The Rock, Johnson got his first big-screen break in The Mummy Returns. Sure, Johnson had already landed bit parts in TV series like Star Trek: Voyager, That ‘70s Show, and The Net, but the flashback role of the Scorpion King led to a fully fledged Mummy prequel in its own right, with The Rock getting the title role. Johnson had to suffer some literal slings and arrows in his big-screen debut, however. His performance as Mathayus attempting to survive a desert trek in the opening scene was serviceable:

But it’s the morphing of The Rock into a computer-generated scorpion monstrosity that still gives us nightmares. This infamous scene sums up just about everything wrong with this picture:

Tooth Fairy (2010)

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Hoo boy, where to start with this one. In case you've never heard the ill-advised plot synopsis for Tooth Fairy, it centers on Johnson's Derek Thompson, a minor league hockey player whose rough personality and jerkish behavior lands him in trouble with the very real tooth fairies, who sentence him to become a tooth fairy himself and learn the error of his ways. What?

Yeah, I would love to know what went into Johnson & Co.'s decision to accept the offer to play this part. Unlike The Game Plan, Johnson's character is cartoonishly villainous from the outset: He tells a young fan to aim low so that he's not disappointed when his dreams don't come true, then he steals a dollar from his girlfriend's six-year-old daughter for a poker bet and, when he's caught, tells her that the tooth fairy isn't real. So while Derek might deserve his fate as a Tooth Fairy-in-Training, Johnson (and viewers) deserve better than this silly, overly saccharine story. Luckily, Johnson's movie career takes a turn for the better after this movie and into the 2010s.

Empire State (2013)

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2013 was a pretty good year for The Rock, but this straight-to-DVD movie was not a big part of it. Look, we get it, it's tough for any heist movie to stand up to the likes of Heat and Ocean's Eleven, but Empire State is just an across-the-board failure. Liam Hemsworth and Michael Angarano simply don't have the charisma or the care to elevate Adam Mazer's dull and slow-paced script about two best friends who rob $11 million from an armored car company.

This "Based on a True Story" movie inspired a lot of interest at the time, but the adaptation just kept sliding further and further down the quality ladder during its entire production process. Johnson adds some excitement as the opposing force in NYPD Detective James Ransone, but his screen time is too little to lift the overall movie. Maybe if Mazer and director Dito Montiel had focused the story on his character instead, then Empire State would have had a theatrical release at the very least.

Race to Witch Mountain (2009)

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While this is a nice meet-cute for Johnson and future San Andreas co-star Carla Gugino, there's not much else going for this movie. It's fine for a "Disney TV movie in the afternoon" kind of feature and, being the third time Disney adapted Alexander Key's novel, "Escape from Witch Mountain," it had a decent performance at the box office. As for Johnson though, this movie is another example of how even The Rock isn't a perfect match for every conceivable movie role out there.

Race to Witch Mountain sees Johnson as Jack Bruno, down-on-his-luck former mob getaway driver turned Las Vegas cabbie, as you do. His fortunes change when a pair of teenagers appear in the back of his cab with a boatload of money and a vague destination in mind. But the kids aren't who they seem and Jack soon finds himself caught between the mob (and the money he owes them), the federal government, and an alien hitman. It's got elements of E.T. the Extra-TerrestrialClose Encounters of the Third Kind, and similar kid-centric alien movies out there, but it never feels quite as big as those classic productions. Race to Witch Mountain also puts Johnson in the back seat of the plot, even when he's in the literal driver's seat throughout the film, and resigns him to "babysitter who occasionally gets to punch stuff." That's fine since this tale is about the journey of Sara (AnnaSophia Robb) and Seth (Alexander Ludwig), but as far as The Rock Movies go, it's not one of his best.

Doom (2005)

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Even The Rock couldn't salvage this much maligned, and rightfully so, attempt at a video game adaptation. Though Johnson leads a team of space marines as Gunnery Sergeant Asher "Sarge" Mahonin, and though he gets a rare chance to go all-out villainous, this tale relegates him to support status behind the core emotional leads of Karl Urban and Rosamund Pike, who play the Grimm siblings. With the exception of a pretty cool scene in which Urban's Grimm goes on a first-person perspective, God-mode rampage to take out the remaining mutated members of the Martian facility--including Sarge--this one's better off left alone.

Planet 51 (2009)

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Johnson has exactly two animated features under his belt: Planet 51 and Moana. One of these highlights the actor's signature strengths, surprising talents, and his ancestral background, while the other is a somewhat forgettable space comedy. On the plus side, Johnson gets to play pretty much the only human character in the entirety of this movie, even if he doesn't get to arrive in earnest until about 20 minutes through the picture. That's because this "alien invasion" movie from Ilion Animation Studios and HandMade Films, through Sony's domestic distribution, actually flips the script and makes the green-skinned aliens and their planet the home base. It's a clever change reminiscent of the 1961 episode of The Twiight Zone "The Invaders", but that twist is really the only thing going for this otherwise bland movie.

Johnson's NASA astronaut Chuck Baker should be a fish out of water in this movie, but the fact that the alien town of Glipforg rather resembles 1950s America and that Chuck is quite self-confident flip that as well. Chuck ends up befriending a local alien kid and they manage to teach each other a few things about their surprisingly vast shared universe along the way, at least until the usual miscommunications between civilizations arise. Unfortunately, Planet 51 is too busy referencing 1950s Americana and parroting familiar storylines to do anything more interesting with the idea, and any nuances of Johnson's performance are lost within it.

Be Cool (2005)

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While the cast assembled for F. Gary Gray's ensemble flick is pretty insane, it's hard to call this one a Rock movie. It takes 10 minutes for Johnson to show up at all, and when he does, it's as a gay bodyguard whose only "thing" is to raise a single eyebrow. The fact that he works for Vince Vaughn's awful character and gets taken down early on by John Travolta's over-the-top protagonist is almost too much to bear if you're a fan of Johnson.

Gray's Hollywood Wiseguys flick is intentionally self-referential, but it comes across as a bit mean-spirited when comparing The Rock's character to a wannabe actor who has the looks but lacks the talent. I will say that he makes the most out of his small part though and really seems to be enjoying himself starting halfway through the film, which is more than I can say for myself. If this was a ranking of The Rock's performances, it would rank higher, but this movie is a real drag.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)

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Despite being one of the best parts of G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Johnson's arrival as Roadblock could not quite ignite Hasbro/Paramount Pictures/MGM's G.I. Joe feature franchise in this soft reboot. And it wasn't for lack of trying. The film cost around $130 to 155 million, but the follow-up to G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra managed to bring in over $375 million worldwide, which would be enough of a success for most film franchises to soldier on. Unfortunately, Hasbro opted to shelve any more movies until a new deal was in place that gave them more creative control; we'll see how that reboot pans out in 2020.

As for G.I. Joe: Retaliation, it's almost as if Johnson was born to be a Joe. As Roadblock, one of the surviving members of the title team after Cobra's surprisingly successful efforts, he leads the others in a counter-terrorist effort to expose Cobra's treachery and to restore their own honor. The problem is that there are too many Joes in the barracks here and far too many sub-plots and characters to keep track of; additionally, the plot is so cluttered with action beats that there's no room for any of it to breathe and so little thought put into those moments that almost none of it makes much sense. It's a popcorn fest for sure and Johnson gets the literal last shot of the film, but we've seen that he can do much better, even in franchise fare.

The Scorpion King (2002)

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More John MiliusConan the Barbarian than a Stephen Sommers story, The Scorpion King was Johnson’s first true test as a leading man in an action picture. While the film itself suffered from the usual genre-movie problems, it found moderate success at the box office thanks to Johnson’s charisma and increasingly recognizable face and physique. It didn’t hurt that the supporting cast included the drop-dead gorgeous Kelly Hu; an over-sized opponent with a big heart as played by the late, great Michael Clarke Duncan; the wise Bernard Hill, who played this part between captaining the Titanic and leading the charge as Theoden in The Lord of the Rings; and veteran Roger Rees alongside relative newcomers like Peter Facinelli. It suffices to say that Johnson had a pretty solid team of players built up around him, but he nevertheless went above and beyond to deliver a fun first outing as a budding action movie star.

The Game Plan (2007)

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Unlike Tooth FairyThe Game Plan at least tries to keep the story grounded in real-world problems and solutions. This schmaltzy tale centers on Johnson's football hero Joe Kingman. He's an all-star on the field and the life of the party off of it, but when the friends and freeloaders are gone, Joe's left all alone with his pooch pal in a big, fancy apartment. That all changes when 8-year-old Peyton Kelly arrives on his doorstop with a note from her mom--Kingman's ex-wife--claiming to be her daughter.

Things play out as you might expect in this sporty version of Big Daddy, with the exception of Kingman's ex-wife keeping Peyton a secret from him in order not to distract him from his career, which isn't exactly a family-friendly decision. The Game Plan gave The Rock a chance to put on his best Elvis impersonation, but more importantly it let him show a softer side as a parent-in-training opposite Madison Pettis. It's not a great film, but it is an easy watch and did quite well at the box office despite critical panning.

This is also the last film in which Johnson uses his billing as "The Rock", though it would still be a few years before he figured out exactly what sorts of movies roles best fit his brand and his talent. Family-friendly pictures work best for him when there's an action slant to them, and he thrives in over-the-top, all-out-action flicks whether they're original creations or franchise installments. The Game Plan wasn't exactly a winner, but it was a step in the right direction towards shaping The Rock's post-wrestling career.

Hercules (2014)

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Johnson once again channeled his inner mythological barbarian for this attempt at rekindling interest in the story of Hercules. The guy certainly has the physique for it, but his preparation came at a pretty insane cost: First, there was the six-month training session in isolation, accompanied by an insane diet plan. Then, there was the two-month shooting schedule, complicated by an injury sustained during a WrestleMania appearance in 2013. Johnson opted not to go under the knife to correct this at the time, but he did have to undergo a related triple-hernia repair just a couple of weeks before shooting started. Yikes. Hear from The Rock himself about this drama:

Though Johnson's intense preparation to play the legendary character and his "method" performance--including blacking out multiple times while trying to break free from real steel chains--did result in a decent box office performance, it wasn't quite strong enough to start a franchise for the mythological demigod. Perhaps it was just that audiences weren't looking for a gritty take on the Hercules mythology at the time, especially since they had two to choose from in 2014 alone. Either way, Hercules remains one of Johnson's most physical efforts in a movie to date, all for a role that few--if any--mere mortals could successfully pull off.

Get Smart (2008)

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Even when Johnson is clearly relegated to a supporting role in a film, he makes the most of it. It helps when he gets to play a nearly superheroic character in Agent 23--though the movie quickly brings him back down to Earth with an awkward attempt to flirt during his introduction. In an unusual move for a romantic/workplace rival, Agent 23 even has a good rapport with Carrel's Maxwell Smart. What's spot-on about Johnson being cast in this role is that his charisma and athletic ability make the impressive exploits of Agent 23 believable. And he's such a charmer that it makes sense for him to be on good terms with both the techie side of the spy agency and even his former girlfriend, Agent 99.

Unfortunately, you can also see the heel turn coming from about a mile away despite the film's best efforts to mask it. Maybe it's a factor of hindsight after the last decade of Johnson's action-packed films that make it difficult to overlook his performances in earlier films, but you don't cast The Rock just to leave him in the background. There's always a bigger part to play and Johnson manages to find something interesting in every role he gets, no matter if it's a lead or part of an ensemble. Get Smart is just one example.

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012)

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In 2008, a modern reboot, which no one really seemed to ask for, of Journey to the Center of the Earth arrived with Brendan Fraser leading his nephew, played by Josh Hutcherson, into adventure. Then a few years later, Johnson came aboard as Hutcherson's step-father in a follow-up adventure that managed to make even more money at the box office. This is about the time that Johnson's ability to lead a family-friendly action-adventure became very apparent since he's able to handle the workload of the role's physical demands with the comedic timing and emotional beats of a father figure. It also helps that his Pec Pops of Love made for a perfect bit of movie marketing.

Rather than just take another trip through Jules Verne's "Mysterious Island" book, the sequel mashes up Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" and Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" right along with it. There's plenty of adventure and comedy to be had in equal measure since the bizarre island's twisted reality presents the explorers with all kinds of challenges, some which can be overcome with brawn and others with brains. It's a good thing Johnson's capable of both because he pretty much carries the film. A third Journey film was set up at the end of the film, but it remains to be seen if it'll get off the ground or if Johnson & Co. will return.

Faster (2010)

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Now don't get this movie confused with the Fast and the Furious franchise that Johnson would famously join a year after this film's release. No, Faster is part of the weird stretch of time where Johnson took on some brutal roles as a vengeful killer bent on righting perceived wrongs, no matter the cost. While Bruce Willis made a killing with these kinds of roles, Johnson only tried a couple of them on for size before finding more success in ensemble pieces, PG-13 action films, and family-friendly flicks.

Faster is none of these. The R-rated crime drama follows Johnson's "Driver", an ex-con released from prison who goes on a vengeful spree in order to get justice for his murdered half-brother. It's got all the action you'd expect: high-speed car chases, brutal gun fights, and noir-y twists and turns. Unfortunately, it also goes overboard with the bleak-for-bleakness-sake stye of drama, folding in snuff films, abortion, and murder plots by parents just to drive the point home. It's not Johnson's preferred speed, but he still manages to deliver as an unstoppable force driven by a powerful thirst for vengeance.

Snitch (2013)

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Snitch and Faster are cut from the same cloth--and feature damn near the same poster. In this film, however, Johnson's character is less of a man driven by vengeance and more of a father out for justice; the difference is exemplified in Faster's R rating and Snitch's PG-13 tag. That's not to say Snitch is exactly family-friendly or a crowd-pleaser for the kiddos, but somewhat older audiences looking for a different sort of Johnson flick could do worse than this one.

Johnson once again plays an estranged father, by the name of John, who's drawn back into family drama. His son gets set up in a drug deal gone wrong and ends up imprisoned, causing John to agree to become an informant in order to get his son out of jail and get their family to witness protection. Complicating things are the ever-deepening schemes and subterfuge John gets himself into, along with the arrival of a deadly cartel leader. It's not a feel-good film at all, but Snitch attempts to fold in some social commentary alongside the action.

Baywatch (2017)

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I 100% expected this movie to be a wall-to-wall joke fest full of self-referential humor, homophobic remarks, and gross-out gags. To be fair, all of those absolutely exist throughout the movie, but I was surprised to find a fun, action-packed story at the heart of it, wrapped in a collection of very beautiful people running very slowly. Baywatch makes the most out of the surprising decision to adapt the popular 80s/90s TV series into a feature film while keeping the spirit of said TV show ... with a little bit of Baywatch NightsDavid Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson thrown in for good measure, for better or worse.

Honestly, would you rather have anyone else responsible for keeping you and your family safe at the beach than The Rock? Okay, maybe Zac Efron or Alexandra DaddarioBaywatch allows for a wide range of tropey personalities spread among its attractive cast, but it's Johnson's Mitch Buchannon who anchors the lot of them. It's a coarse character in a coarser film, but if you're in the mood for an R-rated comedy, Baywatch delivers just that.

The Rundown (2003)

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Here's where The Rock started to separate himself from the wrestling ring and show that he had some range as an actor. To be quite clear, he was still honing his acting chops at this point, but pairing him with up-and-coming director Peter Berg (just before Friday Night Lights) and setting him opposite the red-hot-at-the-time comedic actor Seann William Scott and the always enjoyable Rosario Dawson were decisions that formed a core creative group that gelled well enough together on screen. Throw a little eccentric Christopher Walken in the mix, and you've got a movie that's a bit more memorable than it had any right to be.

Make no mistake though, the premise of this thing was kind of bonkers from the get-go and only gets weirder as time goes on. Johnson plays Beck, a retrieval expert / bounty hunter / debt collector who wants to earn enough from this life-threatening job in order to retire and open a restaurant. (Sure!) That "one last job" is to retrieve his boss' son from a Brazilian mining town. (Okay!) Turns out that the son (William Scott) has been using the mining operation as cover to obtain cultural artifact and sell it, a goal that clashes with the local resistance groups opposing the miners' destructive presence. The Rundown is a mishmash of a bunch of different ideas, but the buddy action/comedy was more than fun enough to at least be considered for a sequel, at least. Unfortunately, a losing effort at the box office likely put the coffin nail in the would-be The Rundown franchise.

Walking Tall (2004)

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Here's one of my all-time favorites from Johnson, but one of the films on this list that's unfairly overlooked. First of all, it's a remake of another cult classic classic favorite of mine, Phil Karlson's 1973 picture by the same name. That film adapted the life story of small-town Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser (Joe Don Baker) who cleaned up crime and corruption in his hometown with the help of a crude club and a no-nonsense attitude.

Kevin Bray's take on the tale keeps the spirit of Buford alive, but swaps Don Baker's White, pro wrester-turned-sheriff for Johnson's minority U.S. Army Special Forces veteran-turned-sheriff (because the pro wrestling angle would have been too on the nose). You'd think that, with Johnson's physical size and presence, the small town hoods would be no problem, but he plays the character of Chris Vaughn with relative vulnerability and brings him down to a very human level. In fact, Vaughn is horrifically tortured and scarred by the crooks, adding insult to injury. It makes Vaughn's eventual election to a law enforcement position, takedown of the town's drug cartel, and ability to rise above race-baiting (though not above beating Neal McDonough with an uprooted tree) a frustratingly hopeful viewing experience.

The decision to pair Johnson with professional goofball Johnny Knoxville is a misstep, but, in addition to the icy-eyed McDonough, Kevin Durand and Michael Bowen are solid additions to the supporting cast. Johnson shoulders the material well and there are hints that a part of him even inhabits the character of Chris Vaughn, allowing him to elevate some of the sillier shoot-'em-up elements of Walking Tall to a place that makes its story still relevant today. Seek it out if you haven't.