Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has signed on to star in Protection, an action thriller to be shot this fall.

From the official plot synopsis:

Johnson will star as ‘Hombre’… a mercenary Mexico City security operative forced to smuggle the daughter of an under-threat, high-ranking judge and the judge’s chief legal counsel across the border while being pursued by corrupt cops, drug lords and white collar U.S. criminal forces.

The film will be directed by Simon West (Con Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, The General’s Daughter) based on a script by Brandon Noonan.

This is not the first time this project was announced, however. Originally West was on board to direct Paul Walker in the lead. Then, Clive Owen was supposedly starring with Patrick Alessandrin directing. Now, West is back with Johnson as Hombre. I wonder how much the story has changed given that Owen was originally signed on.

Although it’s still very early, the plot sounds a little trite. However, I’m not going to pass judgement yet. As we’ve seen in the past, The Rock is a charismatic actor who will hopefully lead this action-packed journey.

10 – Indiana Jones IV – This has got to be one of the worst scenes of all time in the movies, but the explosion is pretty impressive.

9 – Death Star exploding in “The Original Star Wars Episode IV” – I shouldn’t have to lead into this film or explosion in anyway. Enjoy.

8 – White House in Independence Day – This movie seemed to of come out of nowhere and boy did it hit hard. This is a great sequence and explosion. A must see!

7 – The Rock - This movie is a must see for so many reasons, adding it to this list was a pleasure.

6 – The Dark Knight-A great sequence caught on film to say the least. A homage to the late Heath.

5 – Swordfish - This has got to be one of my favorite films for so many reasons. Love the story, the action, and this explosion is awesome!

4 – Stealth - The movie that bombed has one of the all time great explosion in movie history!

3 – Fight Club - The spectacular ending. Nothing else to say besides watch and enjoy!

2 – Terminator 2 – Opening Dream Sequence – this is hard to watch for a father of two kids, but such a statement and a well done scene.

1 – V for Vendetta – Parliament – Great movie, great scene, well done explosion all leading up to a great finale!

Do let us know what we missed as this is a huge genre! Hope you enjoy our little explosion masterpiece!

It really kills me to see Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson wasting his talent. Really. He’s got the charisma needed to pull of some great action roles with the 1980s brand of shoot ‘em up humor that’s been missing for about a decade (only to be found in Jason Statham’s Crank films, really).

Michael Lembeck’s Tooth Fairy doesn’t help. The film finds Johnson as a jerk professional ice skater who must repent for his misdeeds by performing the silly and physically painful duties of a tooth fairy, complete with wings. Like The Santa Clause, only with more muscles.

Believe it or not, I wrote that sentence before realizing that Lembeck directed two of those films, so the comparison is valid. Who knows — the film could be surprising family fare, redeemed by a good performance from Johnson. I just hope he tries something  new soon. Take a look at the trailer below.

Tooth Fairy will be released on January 22, 2010. Special thanks to CinemaBlend for the trailer:

With Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen opening this week, it seems time to take a look back at the critical punching bag career of Michael Bay. Outside of The Rock, Bad Boys and Transformers people have destroyed and tarnished his films. While Pearl Harbor is undoubtedly one of the worst things to happen to humanity, Bay takes too much blame for films that are otherwise purely and greatly entertaining. The guy knows what he’s making and outside of that film we shall not mention, he never parades them as “the most important film in the history of cinema making.” His flicks cater to the twelve year-old inside us all that wants to kill the villain in the worst possible way or go up and save the world on an asteroid (and really, when you’re twelve, do you care about the science of it all or blowing up the asteroid and being a hero?)

In all of his pictures, there’s something known as Bayhem. What is Bayhem you ask? Well I’ll tell ya. It’s the biggest whirlwind you’ll see on screen mixed with an explosion or bullets whizzing by you or both followed by some glorious slow-motion of the hero and or said action sequence. In short it’s mayhem that only Michael Bay can deliver, and what better way to celebrate the opening of Transformers 2 than with The Top 11 Bayhems.

11. THE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR – PEARL HARBOR

My hatred of this film is pretty well-known, but I’m trying to include all of Bay’s film and this does qualify as Bayhem even if it does slap anyone involved in the attack in the face. Slow-motion shots of incoming Japanese planes? Check. Explosions up the wazoo? Check. Planes being shot down left and right and right and left? Check. Likely, it’s the least terrible scene in the movie but I can’t bring myself to call anything about this film good. The fact anything from this crap is on here is a compliment.

10. NAVY SEAL SHOOTOUT – THE ROCK

WHEW, now with that one out of me, we can move on to this brilliant scene from Bay’s second film The Rock. Now, if this had been “The Top 11 Best Directed Bay Scenes” this would be at the top as it perfectly captures the vulnerability and claustrophobia of being in such a tight location for a shootout. As it stands for Bayhem, it’s still great and ends very violently with the SEALs being wasted by Hummel’s mercenaries from above. It’s fairly gripping to see these men fall to their doom and you really wish they wouldn’t. The fallout of the scene leads to one of the best exchanges between Goodspeed and Mason as well as making the viewer feel, if for a minute, all hope is lost.

9. HANGAR ATTACK – BAD BOYS

Interesting fact: Bay took a pay cut on this movie so he could have the hangar explode at the end of this film. It’s debatable whether the scene needed it or not but who doesn’t get riled up watching Mike Lowry and Marcus Burnett launch a small assault on Fouchet and his crew. “You forgot your boardin’ pass,” followed by a flaming body being shot out of a plane is badass, as is Trigger Mike’s leap after Fouchet as the villain tries to flee. It’s all gloriously capped off by a car chase and a really fun take down of the villain. As usual, we get the slow motion shots of our heroes against the sunset as well as Bay’s trademark helicopters. The best thing to me is Mark Mancina’s score as Mike plants one into Fouchet’s leg. Perfect hero music.

8. FREEWAY/BUILDING CHASE - THE ISLAND

A pretty underrated film in it’s own right, The Island did have a strong performance from Djimon Hounsou and was ultimately hurt by terrible marketing which gave away the twist and all of the film’s secrets (see Moon for how to market a film like this properly.) Part of what hurt as well was Bay trying to make this a summer blockbuster with a sci-fi story, as evidenced by the ending (which should have ended the moment a certain character died.) While to me, the freeway chase is a giant rip off of another flick on this list, the sequence that takes place in the building is enough to justify it being here. It culminates with a pretty unrealistic Looney Toones-esque drop that only feels right in a Bay film. Not to mention all the destruction the giant R causes as it races down the side of the structure. Ah, more lovely Bayhem.

7. SOCCENT BASE ATTACK – TRANSFORMERS

This was the perfect way to open Transformers as it begins with that wonderful noise that defined so many of our childhoods. What follows is a giant smackdown of the SOCCENT base in Qatar as Blackout pummels through tank after tank and soldier after soldier. It’s memorable to me because the moment that familiar noise was made, my theater rose and burst into applause and cheers. If Bay was trying to get everyone on his side, he did it within the first five minutes by giving that noise and one of those giant robots whipping all kinds of tail. This, coupled with the introduction of Sam, set us up for what kind of movie we were in for and it didn’t disappoint. Plus, who didn’t want a Blackout toy after that?

6. SAN FRANCISCO CAR CHASE – THE ROCK

The funny thing is Bay wrote this chase into the movie as it wasn’t apart of the original script. While that’s fairly obvious now, Bay still gave us a chase that aspired to be Bullitt on steroids. John Mason launches Womack over the hotel ledge, gets chased by Stanley Goodspeed and the Bayhem ensues once Mason takes a Humvee and Goodspeed “borrows” a Ferrari that’s not his. For my money, it’s one of the best car chases of the last fifteen years with glass being crashed, water tanks being destroyed and even a trolley and the Ferrari are claimed in a giant explosion to cap it all off. Connery’s exchange with the Humvee owner is short and priceless and Cage’s “hero shot” reaction is what the lot of us would feel after being in that. Probably the most badass part of the whole thing is when the Ferrari crashes though the glass from the parking lot. Yeah, I want to do that.

5. ROCKHOUND GOES CRAZY AND DESTRUCTION OF PARIS – ARMAGEDDON

Technically, this counts as one scene as these two follow each other. It all starts when Steve Buscemi gets hold of a gun on an asteroid (and if you’re still taking the flick seriously at this point, shame on you) and starts shooting and blasting everything on the asteroid. The asteroid gets pissed and causes an earthquake that claims an armadillo and one of the astronauts. What follows is one of the most over-dramatic scenes ever put to film with everyone running away and the man standing on the yellow taxi with a “The End is Here” sign. More Bayhem continues when an asteroid falls near Paris and in one fowl swoop the capital of France is leveled. Still, the highlight here is the montage of the world running in fear that has some sort of “we’re sure screwed now” type of mentality behind it. It’s likely the music, which is scored brilliantly by Trevor Rabin.

4. ASSAULT ON TAPIA’S MANSION – BAD BOYS II

Simon Pegg once stated “the film runs on for twenty minutes too long, but it’s the best twenty minutes in the film.” That’s not necessarily true, but the take down of Johnny Tapia is a wonderful action sequence that goes from Plan A, to Plan B, to even Plan C. Not content with the heroes fighting just drug dealers, Bay feels they have to fight the entire Cuban army as well. Bullets fly and magically hit only one of our heroes as they rescue Marcus’ sister and proceed to speed off in a Hummer as Tapia’s house comes tumbling to the ground and only to be finished off the only way Bayhem can be: explosions. The end of all this shooting and explosions does take heavily from Police Story 2 but Plan C ends with one of the best deaths of a villain. Even a lizard is claimed in all of this mess.

3. MISSION CITY BATTLE – TRANSFORMERS

“At the end of this day, one shall stand, one shall fall.” Cue applause from anyone who’s a true Transformers fan and you’re witnessing the best thirty minutes in the movie. This scene displays all of the money that was put into making this flick and nary one time does it look fake. An entire city is destroyed as the robots pound on each other through seemingly downtown Los Angeles. Everyone gets their time to shine, even Optimus Prime who gets pounded on by Megatron and makes an exciting rescue of Sam. In addition, Ironhide’s Chow Yun-Fat like dive as he takes down Brawl (not Devastator, as the movie incorrectly states) is pure greatness. Starscream awesomely takes down a group of Raptor jets before tricking them into thinking he’s one of them and the scene makes Josh Duhamel cool by doing his motorcycle stint to take down Blackout. Enough Bayhem? I thought so.

2. FREEWAY CHASE – BAD BOYS II

It sucks this scene is so early in the movie as it’s my favorite scene and of the best crafted action pieces in a long while. The exchanges between Smith and Lawrence are hysterical and some of it feels natural. The real show stealer though is when the cars start being thrown at the pair by the Haitian drug dealers. Cars aimlessly destroy one another and no, Trigger Mike’s Ferrari doesn’t make it unscathed. Automobiles explode and then get launched from the top of the car carrier. They claim forty-two cars are taken out, but over the course of the scene it looks more like 100. Cars aren’t enough for Explodo (Bay), as he decides to end this with a boat taking out at least ten cars before another five police cars crash and explode into it. The sequence is one of the best car chases you’ll find and is filmed with perfect execution. My favorite exchange? “Know what would be real fuckin’ helpful Marcus? Just shut the fuck up and let me drive, let’s try that!”

1. THE ENDING OF ARMAGEDDON

Odd choice? Not in the slightest, as this scene is everything that IS Michael Bay. “We win Gracie,” kicks off one lighting quick edit of Harry Stamper’s life and daughter, moving onto slow motion destruction of the asteroid. Through all of this, Trevor Rabin’s score hits all of the easy dramatic notes that give the feeling of “WE DID IT!” Even more, there’s shots of people across the world celebrating and running into the streets with space shuttle toys.  It’s over-the-top, slow motion explosions complete with cheese for the resolution with it’s characters, and rapid fast dialog. But this is what defines Michael Bay as all of his tricks are at work in this entire sequence. Nothing is subtle or restrained here and yet it feels like the perfect way to cap off this flick. It’s pretty likely that those who hate this sequence are the ones who detest Bay and those who enjoy the ending for what it is are those who like him. In either case, no other scene of Bayhem depicts what he is or truly defines the man like this and that’s why it’s at the top.

Race to Witch Mountain

I love The Rock, no matter what name he goes by. Yes, his name is now Dwayne Johnson but he’s always going to be the all-around, smackdown people’s champ to me. He’s worked out fairly well as a movie star, even if he’s veered off from his action roots. Some of us (myself included) wish he would go back to films like The Rundown and Walking Tall and less The Game Plan and Get Smart. Race to Witch Mountain, even with its comedy, looks to put Dwayne Johnson back in those shoes.

This new Witch Mountain has The People’s Champ playing Jack Bruno, a down-on-his-luck former thug trying to make things right by driving a taxi in Las Vegas. Along the way, he runs into Dr. Alex Friedman (Carla Gugino), an astrophysicist who he drops off at a UFO Convention. He’s then met by two children Sara (AnnaSophia Robb) and Seth (Alexander Ludwig) who give him a lot more than allowance money to drive them all the way out of Vegas and to an abandoned home. They’re chased by government agents (led by Hollywood’s go-to guy for this role, Ciarán Hinds) who all but destroy Jack’s taxi. Jack discovers, at the house, that the kids are aliens who have to find an artifact that will prevent Earth’s destruction. They’re then chased by an alien being called a Siphon, who wants the children dead so his side can invade the earth. It’s up to Dwayne, the kids, and Sally Jupiter to save the day.

For one thing, this film is surprisingly violent for a kid’s film. No one is raped brutally or blown up in a fire, but there are a lot of gun shots and cars are destroyed like it’s a demolition derby. This role also asks that The Rock beat people silly and while there where no Rock Bottoms or People’s Elbow’s, he does wonderfully beat two guys down using prop Stormtrooper guns. There are scenes where the Siphon wades through the government team with tons of explosions. There’s no blood (Disney doesn’t do that), but it’s not what’s normally expected from the House of Mouse. The action scenes themselves are thrilling, often actually giving the audience a sense of danger. The beginning and middle are the best examples of this, when the kids and Jack Bruno are being chased by the Siphon and are about to ram face to face with a train. Of course we know the outcome but the film tricks you into thinking they may not make it.

One of the joys of watching Dwayne Johnson as a rassler was his banter with the others, and dare I say it’s just as much fun watching him wit it up with Sam and Seth. AnnaSophia Robb is eventually going to be a great actress and here she does a great job playing off The Rock. The only time it feels like she’s over-doing it is at the end of the film, but more on that later. I wasn’t familiar with Alexander Ludwig until this flick and the boy didn’t fail to impress. Just like AnnaSophia, he holds his own with The Rock and never feels like he’s the typical over-the-top “too cool for school” type that most child actors tend to fall into. He’s protective, soft spoken, and has potential to be a future action star. The rest of the cast is serviceable, with Carla Gugino doing a solid job as Alex Friedman. It was surprising to see her a week removed from playing ‘a bloated whore’ into a geeky scientist but she makes the transition wonderfully. Ciarán Hinds is essentially playing his Agent Fujima from Miami Vice where all he’s required to do is give his lines in a tough manner, capture the kids, and foil The Rock’s plan. Where some actors become stereotyped, he’s starting to become the face of the “tough, quiet” FBI head honcho. Both cameos by Garry Marshall and Cheech Marin are a treat and I wish more had been done with the latter character. He could have been a good “sidekick” for Jack Bruno.

For all Race to Witch Mountain does right (which is a lot), it loses its steam toward the end. The film does follow a pretty basic formula but for most of the ride you don’t notice. What happens is Witch Mountain stops hiding the fact it’s sticking to the formula. It also stops making us feel like the characters lives are in danger, something it did so well for the first forty-five minutes of it. Sure, it should have been expected the film would end like it did but the rest of the film was so great at keeping the mask on. The ending to this gives us a predictable “life or death” scene, an escape, and a happy denouement. It’s Disney, so certain things have to be considered but I felt one scene was ripped right from The Matrix that didn’t need to be – and with shoddy visual FX. It stings because this is an otherwise good, fun flick.

But really, this isn’t going to matter to the market for this film: the kids. They will love it, and they should. It’s one of the best action-adventures out right now (that includes both adult and kid films) and has a perfect lead. The jokes are made for both kids and adults even if one reference is made for the parents in the audience. It’s really tough to hate this film, and most likely kids and adults alike won’t. It’s formulaic and does lose it’s mojo by the final frame and yet it’s still enjoyable. There’s thrills, excitement, and laughs to be had on the Race to Witch Mountain. Here’s hoping not only that it’s a hit, but that it returns Dwayne Johnson to his action roots next go-around.

Rating: ★★½☆☆