Everyone has to start somewhere to break into the acting business, and for John Cena, his road to Hollywood stardom began with a pair of banal WWE-backed action movies. Three years after making his screen debut in The Marine, the full-time professional wrestler got bitten by the bug again when 12 Rounds came to theaters in March 2009.
Directed by Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger, and The Long Kiss Goodnight‘s Renny Harlin, the low budget genre flick somewhat ironically drew most of its cues from Die Hard with a Vengeance in terms of plot. Cena’s New Orleans cop stops a criminal mastermind from pulling off his latest heist, which also results in the accidental death of his girlfriend.
Breaking out of prison, Aidan Gillen’s hammy antagonist kidnaps the police officer’s fiancee to exact revenge, forcing him to undertake a string of task, puzzles, and challenges in order to save her life. It sounds silly, and it is, but the biggest mistake made by 12 Rounds is that it takes itself oh so seriously.
As we’ve discovered in the years since, Cena is at his weakest when he’s playing the square-jawed action hero, with Peacemaker proving once and for all that he’s excellent when allowed to balance his comic timing with the undoubted physicality that comes from being built like a brick sh*thouse with holiday hams for forearms.
That hasn’t stopped his sophomore stab at leading man status from doing a number on the streaming charts, though, with 12 Rounds having become one of the most-watched titles on iTunes so far this week, as per FlixPatrol.
