Walking Tall (2004) - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Sergeant Chis Vaughn (Dwayne Johnson, credited as The Rock) comes home after eight years of active duty in the Army Special Forces. After all that time away, things have changed. His hometown is no longer a place he recognizes. The big mill that employed so many people is closed. Now, the big attraction and place of employment for the locals is a crooked casino, run by his childhood friend turned criminal entrepreneur, Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough). And now his town is run rampant with corruption, drugs, and violence.

Chris is invited to the casino by Hamilton, and when he realizes the games are fixed, he gets into a fight with the local security, who beat him mercilessly and cut him up with a razor blade. The local sheriff is on the take and does nothing, and even accuses Chris of having some PTSD-related violent fit. With no one willing to take a stand, Chris takes it upon himself to be the voice of the people and runs for sheriff, replacing the crooked lawman who’s in Hamilton’s pocket. He’s as good as his word and cleans things up, going after drug dealers who are poisoning children with crystal meth.

No one ever said taking on corruption was going to be easy. The local crime syndicate strikes back, and Chris has to fight for his life in a hail of bullets, explosions, and hand-to-hand combat. Whatever the bad guys throw at him, he’s ready for it. Once the action starts, it never lets up, and Chris has his childhood buddy, Ray (Johnny Knoxville), right there along with him when things start getting tough.

Walking Tall is based, very loosely, on the (sort-of) true story of Sheriff Buford Pusser, and is a remake of a 1973 film starring Joe Don Baker in that role. At a brisk 86-minute runtime, it unfortunately never fully commits to the possibilities of its story. The story of Sheriff Pusser is an interesting one, and while I appreciate that an inconsequential action flick didn’t drag its feet and bloat its runtime, it never has a chance to be interesting, beyond its premise. Dwayne Johnson is serviceable in the lead role and has a physical screen presence that makes him formidable. But what makes the guy tick beyond some sense of altruism? He embodies nothing but morality and doesn’t ever have a chance to be human. Neal McDonough, who was excellent in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and had a memorable turn in Justified and flicks like Ravenous, has the most fun of all the cast.

If Walking Tall was to ignore the interesting drama in favor of an all-out action flick, it unfortunately never rises to that challenge, either. The Rock, a professional wrestler, teamed with Johnny Knoxville, of Jackass fame, as his sidekick, should have a vehicle to show off their physicality and prowess, performing breathtaking stunts throughout, like a Jackie Chan flick, or Tom Cruise in his Mission: Impossible movies. Instead, the story hurdles along at breakneck speed, rushing through by-the-numbers action sequences. Ultimately, it doesn’t feel like a complete movie. It feels like a half-baked production that hints at interesting ideas, while never allowing them to fully form or coalesce. 

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Walking Tall walks softly and carries a big stick on 4K UHD Blu-ray, coming back home after a long time away, in a two-disc release, housed in a standard case with a removable slipcover. Both the case and the slip contain identical cover artwork from its original theatrical poster, which features Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson carrying his beloved 2X4 he uses to smack down small-town gangsters.

Walking Tall is presented in 2160p/Dolby Vision, from a 4K scan of the film’s original 35mm camera negative. The team at Kino Lorber have done the best possible job they could with the source material, as it’s free of any sort of technical issue like artifacts, color banding, aliasing, etc., but the source they’re working with is just sort of… meh? For a movie shot on 35mm film, it never looks as good as it should, except in brief moments. There are occasional glimpses into how good Walking Tall could look, with a sharp focus, deep color, and thick, inky blacks, particularly in sequences inside the crooked casino. But, mostly, throughout, focus is soft, and details are clouded in a haze that obscures our visibility. At best, I think the cinematography looks serviceable or perfunctory. It looks like a decent technical product, but in restoring it to 4K, graded in Dolby Vision HDR, it looks about on par with an average Blu-ray. There’s just nothing remarkable about it, although the color spectrum has more added definition. 

Viewers have the option between a 5.1 surround mix and a 2.0 stereo mix, both encoded in DTS-HD MA. The audio mix is far and away the film’s best asset, with bone-crunching, jaw-smashing effects that pack a punch on the front end of the soundstage, with bullets whiz by and ricochet through the rear speakers. Graeme Revell’s musical score, along with the film’s soundtrack, which is mostly populated with butt-rock-ified covers of classic hits, surrounds the listener across all channels on the mix. The stereo option is a decent option, too, for those who lack a surround sound system. Both mixes give priority to the dialogue, so it never gets lost in all the mayhem of punches, car crashes, and gunshots.

Walking Tall comes equipped with some legacy features, the only new feature for this specific release being a new audio commentary track by film journalist Brandon Streussnig. But with three audio commentaries, a featurette, deleted scenes, and a gag reel, there’s enough here to keep fans satisfied and shed light on the film’s production history. Audio commentaries are available on both discs, while all other special features are on the Blu-ray only.

4K Disc

• Audio Commentary - Film Journalist Brandon Streussnig
• Audio Commentary - Star Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson
• Audio Commentary - Director Kevin Bray, DP Glen MacPherson and Editor Robert Ivison

Blu-ray Disc

• Audio Commentary - Film Journalist Brandon Streussnig
• Audio Commentary - Star Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson
• Audio Commentary - Director Kevin Bray, DP Glen MacPherson and Editor Robert Ivison
• Fight the Good Fight (SD 8:45) - Featurette 
• Deleted Scenes (SD 1:42)
• Alternate Ending (SD 1:21)
• Bloopers (SD 0:48)
• Trailers

Walking Tall shambles shortly. My usual, go-to complaint for movies of this type is that somewhere in this bloated mess of a movie is a lean, mean flick dying to get out. But Walking Tall is a lean, mean flick dying for some bloat. It’s too economical for its own good and misses a lot of golden opportunities. As a story, it never says anything meaningful. As an action film, it wastes the talents of two athletic performers. And while it has a satisfying surround sound mix, the 4K scan does its best with a ho-hum source. Walking Tall is Worth a Look for fans of Dwayne Johnson looking for empty-headed escapism.