12 Rounds 3: Lockdown

weak movie

Wrestler Dean Ambrose is cop John Shaw who returns to duty after being shot and his partner getting killed. Shaw needed psychiatric counselling. His first day back on the job ends up being far from rosy. Shaw finds evidence and saves it in a flash drive that the star officer in the precinct Tyler Burke leads a team of crooked cops. When Burke finds out he evacuates the police station in a bogus fire scare and puts in on lockdown so he and his unit could hunt down Shaw who only has 12 bullets in his gun and seems incapable to find any more. Then again as you watch the film you figure that when brains were handed out he was at the back of the line. The film is inept. Die Hard on the cheap. Ambrose shows little charisma or action abilities. The plot is garbage. I could never figure why Shaw never made a copy of the drive or save it elsewhere. Also I never figured how Burke would realistically pin all the deaths on Shaw. The forensics would not match. Several times Shaw is saved because of external factors nothing to with any cunning or planning by the main star. The previous 12 round films were passable and had some decent action. This was just bad.

I was first unsure about the "12 Rounds" series being I never seen any movies before. I am a fan of Dean Ambrose who plays Officer Shaw because I am a WWE fan as well. I was surprised of how good of a actor Ambrose was (not gonna say why) and I think he should be in other WWE films in the future. I did think the movie was a little on the short side but it was a movie to enjoy. Stephen Reynolds did a fantastic job directing this film and all the cast did a amazing job as well! I did wonder if they will make a 12 Rounds 4 anytime soon but hey, will it be better than 12 Rounds 3? anyway, I loved this movie because of all the action and adventure that is in it and I give it 9 out of 10 because I think it was very enjoyable to watch as a WWE fan! nice job acting Dean! :)

Think about every possible cliché: Corrupt cops, the good guy that comes back to work, the good guy that gets framed, the good guy that has to clear up his name, the bad guys who miss the good guy even if he's way too close. This time the movie even tries to surprise you with a twist, which was also predictable. Overall, it was OK. It's short and it doesn't waste time with characters that don't belong to the movie. It's basically one hero against a group of bad guys. One of them is Colossus from X-Men movies. The camera work is annoying during the shootouts. The bodycount is not high, but it's quite fine on its own. Nothing new. You can enjoy it if you don't have anything else to do.

"12 Rounds 3: Lockdown" deserved a much better script. As a mindless action flick, it's not a bad way to spend ninety minutes. Production values are adequate and there are some decent action sequences. The unarmed combat scenes are much better than the gunfights. The somewhat gratuitous car scenes seem more like product placements than part of the script. The script makes no sense at all. Why would a police department even have a lockdown mode that prevents fire doors from opening from the inside? Why would the villains think they could hunt down and murder an officer when every corner of the building is monitored by security cameras? The villains operate as if there is no forensic evidence of anything, even the caliber of weapons. The script tries to give Shaw (Ambrose) a backstory and inner conflict with an incident that resulted in a partner's death and required an extended leave for psychiatric care. Several characters refer to the incident; however, there is never any resolution. We expect to find out that either it wasn't really his fault due to circumstances he didn't understand, as in "Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol" or to learn that some character fault or error in judgment did result in the death and that he can overcome a similar dilemma only if he has learned from the experience. But it is never developed and his experience doesn't seem to infuse his actions. Shaw also has history with the villain, but neither seems to use any unique understanding of the other to any advantage. "12 Rounds" and "12 Rounds 2: Reloaded" have been compared to "Die Hard with a Vengeance," while "12 Rounds 3: Lockdown" has been compared to the original "Die Hard." However, where the first two 12 Rounds films had clever scripts that compared favorably with the second Die Hard, the third pales compared to the original "Die Hard." Long segments without dialogue require actors of the caliber of Bruce Willis ("Die Hard"), Robert Redford ("All is Lost") and Tom Hanks ("Castaway"). Dean Ambrose can be effective when given the material. An early scene at a stoplight is effective without dialogue. Unfortunately, he's not given much to work with. Shaw frequently ejects his magazine to count the number of bullets remaining, but never adds in one for the bullet in the chamber. The villains are able to get into the armory and equip themselves with assault rifles and bulletproof vests, but Shaw can't manage to pick up one of the weapons dropped during a fight. There is no character development and no moral. Shaw has inner demons, but seems to ignore them. He is wounded, but ignores the wounds. He has an opportunity to team up with another cop, but doesn't. The script is a largely predictable mishmash of familiar tropes. The level of gunplay is over the top. There is no way the villains could hope to argue that their use of force was justified by the circumstances or that the top brass would allow them to continue shooting up the department with wild abandon. And yet, the tone is very serious and down to earth, unlike such films as "Shoot 'Em Up" or "Smokin' Aces," which have a comic book sense of reality. While the film never really engages the viewer, neither does it bore. While the plot seems ridiculous and implausible, if one can disengage ones mental faculties, it offers some entertaining action sequences.

12 Rounds 3: Lockdown