Movie Thursday: #7

Thanksgiving with The Rock

Do you have that favorite actor or actress where as soon as their name pops up under the "Starring" section, you start thinking of when you are going to see it, regardless of what the movie is about? I have a short list of people with that distinction - Johnny Depp, Will Ferrell have always been there but recently Robert Downey Jr added his name up there.

But one man who earned that title long before he even starred in a movie? Dwayne Johnson.

Otherwise known as The Rock.

He first got a role in a movie starring as the Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns, the sequel to the Mummy. It got enough of a reaction that he received his own spin-off movie in The Scorpion King.

It was early 2001 when that movie came out. And it was early 2001 that we as wrestling fans began to say goodbye to the wrestling career of The Great One.

After his own movie, he began to alternate between movies and wrestling. He would come back to get involved in a storyline before heading back out to film another film. At one point, it actually turned him into a Hollywood "bad guy" when the fans started to boo him instead of cheering because of him showing which path he had chosen. After a while, we couldn't boo for that long and our appreciation grew.

During the times when he would alternate, movies such as The Rundown, Walking Tall and Doom were released. Some were hit and some were definitely miss. At one point, The Rock's WWE contract ran out and he simply dedicated his career to acting.

An small indie movie was released called Southland Tales that to this day I still can't make sense of. But it was his turn as a football coach in Gridiron Gang that got a new audience talking - families.

From there, he turned in roles in Get Smart, the animated Planet 51, and then went on the Disney path of roles in The Game Plan, Escape to Witch Mountain and the Tooth Fairy. He raised a lot of criticism for the roles as taking the family way out and not being an action guy anymore. Which is kind of hard to do when you're playing a fairy.

(For what it's worth, I actually enjoyed those movies. My sister and I both did).

Then came The Other Guys, the taste of the other side of The Rock where he plays alongside Samuel Jackson in the same movie as Will Ferrell (a pairing that nearly caused me to have a heart attack).

This week marks his ultimate return to action with Faster. I have been waiting for this return for a while. I read a random review that said "Most people will be buying a ticket to see The Rock kick ass again. And if so, you will be happy."

And besides eating some cranberry sauce (my thanksgiving necessity) and seeing some family this weekend, I plan to at some point watch The Rock kick ass.