12 Rounds 2: Reloaded Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.0

12 Rounds 2: Reloaded Blu-ray Movie Review

Can you stand another 12 rounds?

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater June 6, 2013

Not Another 12 Rounds? Not 13 Rounds? Not just 12 Rounds: Reloaded? Because really, 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded is a ridiculous title. It sounds like a movie about, I dunno, a vigilante boxer who brings a pistol into the ring...again. Sadly, that would've probably made a better film. Reloaded is the straight-to-video, in-name-only sequel to WWE Studios' empty-headed 2009 thriller 12 Rounds, which starred pro-wrestler John Cena (The Marine) and was directed by an apparently desperate-for-work Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2). Much like the low-budget sequels to The Marine, Reloaded has no connection to its predecessor besides the same basic premise, trading out Cena for the lesser-known and probably less-expensive Randy Orton, another muscleman from the WWE's stable. Likewise, the director's chair has been passed off to The Marine 2 helmer Roel Reiné, a Paul Verhoeven protege most recently responsible for straight-to-video disasters like Death Race: Inferno and The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption. Clearly, with this pedigree, 12 Rounds 2 isn't going to be any good. The real question: Is it bad bad, or fun bad?

The rare-in-the-wild EMT with full-sleeve tattoos.

The short answer? Boring bad. 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded is about as exciting as its generic, straight-to-the-bargain-bin title. It's also practically identical to its predecessor, story-wise, while being worse in nearly every conceivable way. In the first movie, a deranged arms dealer kidnaps an FBI agent's girlfriend and challenges him—in order to get her back—to a game of "12 Rounds." That is, to follow a line of hints and survive a series of twelve tasks. The plot of the sequel? A deranged private security specialist kidnaps an EMT's wife and challenges him to a game of "12 Rounds" in order to get her back. There's no reference to the first film, no crossovers, just yet another wily criminal who likes to toy with his victims by forcing them to endure an elaborate puzzle-like sequence of pre-planned scenarios. It's like someone watched all the Saw movies back-to-back and thought, "you know, I'm going to make this, but without all the blood and guts and tension."

Randy Orton is the aforementioned EMT, Nick Malloy, who's introduced off-duty after enduring a rom-com date with his wife, Sarah (Cindy Bubsy). Whaddaya know, two cars crash right beside them as they walk down a darkened street, and though Nick springs immediately into action, there's nothing he can do to save the woman who was driving one of the vehicles. He's pretty shook up about this considering he probably sees death just about every day on the job, but I suppose this is director Reiné's ham-hocked way of getting us to feel something for Nick, who will soon be reduced to your boringly usual hunk of action movie man-meat, as emotive as a rack of ribs. One year to the day of the crash, Nick and his partner are responding to what appears to be a routine accident, only to find a man with a brick of C4 sewn into his belly. Nick gets a cellphone call from a stranger who informs him that "the scales are off...and they need to be set right again," and—kaboom!—the bomb goes off. That's round one. The voice on the other end of the line informs Nick that if he doesn't play the game—or if he goes to the cops—his wife will be killed.

And that's the general set-up for the tedious 80-odd minutes that follow, with Nick frantically piecing together the clues and hurrying from one location to the next to beat the ever-present countdown clock. Along the way, he reluctantly teams up with Tommy (Tom Stevens), the junkie son of the state's governor, who's been suspiciously missing for the past few days. Without giving anything away—not that there's really anything to give away— all this madness is the work of the revenge-driven Heller (Brian Markinson), a security systems expert who's camped out in what looks to be a subterranean tunnel, monitoring a bank of touchscreens. You've probably already guessed Heller's motivation—it's not hard to figure out—and the film's attempt at some kind of commentary on privacy and justice is obvious to the extent of being dopey. I'll just put it this way: there's a nightclub featured prominently in the movie that's called "Karma."

If you're hoping, at the very least, for some fun action sequences, you'll still be disappointed. The explosions and shootouts are routine. The car chases look like they play out at around 25 miles per hour, and are cut in such a way that it's hard to tell exactly what's going on. Even the hand-to-hand fighting—which you'd think is the one thing Randy Orton could do well here—is awkwardly choreographed and uninteresting. Orton has about half the onscreen charisma of John Cena—which is really saying something—and as if to compensate, Tom Stevens goes way up, up, over-the-top. Also, if you've been watching Brian Markinson as Dr. Rosen on this season of Mad Men—where he's excellent—he'll seem weirdly out of place here as a blandly maniacal supervillain. It can't be said more simply than this: Low-budget, with clunky action, a dumb script, and hammy performances, 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded is everything that comes to mind when you think straight-to-video sequel.

12 Rounds 2: Reloaded Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

12 Rounds 2: Reloaded looks the part of the straight-to-video sequel, shot fast and cheap with Red Epic digital cameras and minimal lighting setups. Taking place mostly at night, in dim locations, the film's image is usually coated with a thick layer of source noise. And while director Roel Reiné serves double-duty as his own camera operator, his focus-pulling isn't often as precise as it could be. Taken together, the picture can sometimes be very soft. That said, overall clarity is decent—if never exceptional—with closeups revealing the usual degree of fine high definition detail in clothing and hair and facial features. Color density is good, but there are some questionable grading decisions, along with occasional blown-out highlights. Additionally, black levels can start crushing shadow levels in certain scenes. This isn't a movie you want to watch during the day if your entertainment room has lots of windows and your screen is prone to glare. There are also some faint signs of compression here and there, but nothing remotely distracting. Reloaded looks as good as can be expected.

12 Rounds 2: Reloaded Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's sound design seems low-budget too—very constrained for what purports to be an action movie. The lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track we get here is extremely front heavy, with minimal rear-channel engagement. Sure, you'll hear some sirens and gunshots and street ambience, but nothing particularly involving. That said, clarity is strong throughout and dynamics aren't bad either, particularly when explosions give the mix an excuse to activate the subwoofer. Dialogue is always clear and easily understood. The disc includes optional English SDH, Spanish, and French subtitles, but no dubs or descriptive audio tracks.

12 Rounds 2: Reloaded Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary: Director Roel Reiné and editor Radu Ion talk us through the particular difficulties of trying to make an action movie on a very small budget.
• Randy Orton Reloaded (HD, 8:12): The film's cast and crew talk about working with the WWE Superstar, who also shows up to discuss his first film appearance.
• The Action of 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded (HD, 8:34): A quick look into the filming of the car chases, shoot-outs, and explosions.
• Locations: From Heller's Lair to the Sugar Factory (HD, 6:58): A tour of the film's Vancouver locations, in particular, the abandoned Riverview mental hospital.

12 Rounds 2: Reloaded Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Engineered as a low-cost attempt to milk some additional money from a movie that wasn't very good to begin with, 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded is as lazy as sequels get. It's basically a rehash of the original, but with a lesser star, a lesser director, and minuscule budget. Pro-wrestling fans are the target audience here, but if that's you—and you enjoyed the first 12 Rounds—just be aware that Reloaded is fundamentally worse in every way. Even the turn-off-your-brain action is disappointing. 20th Century Fox's Blu-ray release has a decent audio/video presentation and comes stocked with a few okay extras, but unless you're some kind of Randy Orton fiend, you're advised to stay away.