Rundown, The (4K UHD Review)

• Reviewed by: Stephen Bjork
• Review Date: Oct 06, 2025
• Format: 4K Ultra HD
• 

Director

Peter Berg

Release Date(s)

2003 (August 26, 2025)

Studio(s)

Universal Pictures (Kino Lorber Studio Classics)

• Film/Program Grade: B
• Video Grade: A
• Audio Grade: A
• Extras Grade: B

kinolorber.com

Review

When martial arts experts make the leap to action movie stardom, they tend to start out with films that take advantage of their unique physical skillsets. Yet it in many cases, they quickly end up moving away from that kind of thing, either due to a desire not to be typecast or else out of simple laziness—after all, it’s a lot easier to pick up a gun and pull the trigger than it is to choreograph and rehearse an elaborate fight scene. The careers of some professional wrestlers have followed a similar trajectory. Take Hulk Hogan, for example. He started out by making a cameo as a wrestler named Thunderlips in Rocky III before eventually expanding his repertoire to include action classics like Suburban Commando.

Okay, bad example. Scratch that. Let’s consider Roddy Piper instead.

Piper started out by playing a wrestler in Hal Needham’s troubled (and nearly forgotten) Body Slam, but then he quickly sidestepped into a project that ended up making him the stuff of legend: John Carpenter’s They Live. Piper played a homeless construction worker, not a wrestler, but Carpenter’s genius with that bit of casting is that he still leaned into Piper’s physical abilities for an unforgettable beatdown with Keith David. Piper kicked ass, bubble gum not included, and while he never managed to parlay that into substantial box office glory, his cult move reputation was secure.

So, what does any of that have to do with The Rundown? Nothing. And everything.

Wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson had found success out of the gate playing Mathayus of Akkad in The Mummy Returns and its spinoff The Scorpion King, but the reality is that it was largely stunt casting—he was hired mostly for his muscles and not much else. He needed something that would lean into his natural charm as much as it did his impressive physique, and he struck gold in that regard with The Rundown. While it only made a fraction of the money that his previous two films had (and it actually lost money considering how much that it cost to produce), it’s still the film that helped turn Johnson into a superstar. And some of the credit for that has to go to none other than Roddy Piper and John Carpenter.

When former actor Peter Berg was hired to direct The Rundown, he only had one other feature film credit under his belt: the unforgettably caustic black comedy Very Bad Things. That wasn’t exactly an action film, so Berg did his research before deciding how he wanted to approach The Rundown, and watching They Live ended up being profoundly influential. Not so much in terms of style, but rather because of something that tends to get lost whenever wrestlers or martial artists start picking up guns: getting maximum impact into the fight scenes. After all, professional wrestlers are professional ass-kickers, and Carpenter had leaned into that with the mano a mano between Piper and Keith. So, Berg’s solution was lean into Johnson’s natural physical talents just as much as his charismatic personality, and as a result, every single fight scene in The Rundown is an absolute ass-kicking beatdown.

It certainly didn’t hurt that the script by R.J. Stewart and James Vanderbilt supported that kind of approach. Beck (Johnson) has been working as a collector for loan shark Billy Walker (William Lucking), but only because he’s paying off debts of his own. Since he hates guns, he relies on his physical prowess instead. He wants to get out of the business in order to start his own restaurant, so Walker offers him one last job: to track down Walker’s wayward son Travis (Seann William Scott) in a Brazilian mining town and bring him back to Los Angeles by any means necessary. Beck reluctantly accepts the assignment, and soon finds himself caught between the town’s boss Hatcher (Christopher Walken) and the local rebels led by Mariana (Rosario Dawson). It turns out that Travis has been after a legendary artifact called the Gato, and everyone wants a piece of it as much as Beck wants a piece of Travis. Unfortunately for Beck, he’s not going to be able to get the one without the other. The Rundown also stars Ewen Bremner, John Gries, Ernie Reyes, Jr., and Stephen Bishop (watch for action movie legends Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sven-Ole Thorsen in uncredited cameos).

Now, The Rundown is a modern action adventure, so sooner or later guns do enter into the picture, with even Beck eventually taking his best shot with them. Yet they’re always secondary to the ass-kicking, and Beck’s own foray with guns is mercifully brief before returning to what he does best. One thing that modern action films have lost due to their overreliance on shaky camerawork and quick cutting is the sensation of momentum and impact, and while Berg himself later succumbed to that kind of frenetic but empty style, The Rundown takes its time to make sure that viewers really feel every single punch, kick, and throw during the fight scenes. And that’s where having a former professional wrestler like The Rock really helps, since he wasn’t shy about being on the receiving end of an ass-kicking, and he knew exactly how to sell it to the audience, too. Johnson was able to handle anything that fight coordinator Andy Cheng threw at him, including a memorably weird jungle beatdown delivered by Ernie Reyes, Jr. and some of the other rebels.

Still, however important that Johnson’s physical talents were to making The Rundown work, there’s no getting around the fact that the film was also a prime showcase for his undeniable charisma. Being able to handle whatever Cheng threw at him wouldn’t have been enough; he also had to deal with Seann William Scott, Christopher Walken, and Ewan Bremner’s offbeat personas—and he was able to handle all of them with aplomb. The Mummy Returns and The Scorpion King may have been far more profitable, but they still could have been a dead-end street for Johnson’s career if The Rundown hadn’t changed its course for the better (regardless of box office returns). Fortunately, it did just that—and the rest, as they say, is history.

Cinematographer Tobias Schliessler shot The Rundown on 35mm film (in Super-35 format) using Panavision cameras with spherical lenses, framing for anamorphic release prints at 2.39:1. Post-production work appears to have utilized a 2K Digital Intermediate, but it’s not clear if the whole film was completed as a DI, or just the effects shots which were then scanned back out to film and cut into the negative (which was exactly how Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World was produced that same year). Kino Lorber describes this new 4K master from Universal as being “from a 4K scan of the original camera negative,” so either it wasn’t a full DI or else the negative was conformed to the DI.

In any event, it’s immediately obvious that this isn’t just a 2K upscale. Most of the effects shots do look like early digital composites, with an inherent smoothness and lack of fine detail (although it’s possible a few of them were either composited optically or else they just have some really ugly digital rotoscoping in them). The native 4K material looks superb, however, with crispness and clarity that DIs from 2003 simply couldn’t achieve no matter the quality of any upscaling algorithms used on them. Look no further than the suit that Beck is wearing during the opening sequence, which has a weave on it that looks like a Spears & Munsil test pattern, and it’s resolved down to the tightest lines in that pattern. Textures like that are perfectly resolved in all the native 4K material, while the grain looks natural and smooth throughout. Just be prepared for the fact that some of the effects shots do call attention to themselves, like when Hatcher first reveals the breadth of his domain to Beck. But those flaws are inherent to the original production.

This version has been graded for High Dynamic Range in both Dolby Vision and HDR10, and it nails the intended look for The Rundown. While there’s been some controversy these days over what’s usually referred to derisively as orange/teal grading, it’s worth pointing out that Berg has always preferred the high-contrast look that this style of grade can achieve. The colors are warm here and the contrast is really, really strong (if you’re sensitive to flashing lights, watch out for the strobe lights in the club during the fight with the football players). The blacks are deep, but not at the expense of shadow detail—not only is this a substantial upgrade over Universal’s old Blu-ray, but even the remastered Blu-ray included here can’t touch the look of the UHD. It’s safe to say that The Rundown has never looked better on home video.

Audio is offered in English 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio, with optional English subtitles. It’s a lively, punchy mix entirely in keeping with relatively early DTS theatrical mixes. The surrounds are used aggressively, including some fun effects like when Beck throws a DJ turntable at one of the football players and it bounces off him into the right surround channel—and when the team locates the Gato in the collapsing cave, the surround activity is positively thunderous. The bass hasn’t been rolled off like many modern mixes, with plenty of thump for the music in the club scenes and an abundance of rumble in the jungle when the cave collapses. Harry Gregson-Williams’s propulsive score also does some of the heavy lifting to provide energy for the track. While some people are quick to complain when a catalogue release doesn’t include an Atmos remix, The Rundown is a good reminder of just how potent that 5.1 can be.

The Kino Lorber 4K Ultra HD release of The Rundown is a two-disc set that includes a Blu-ray with a 1080p copy of the film. There’s also a slipcover that duplicates the theatrical poster artwork on the insert. The following extras are included:

DISC ONE: UHD

• Commentary by Peter Berg and Dwayne Johnson
• Commentary by Kevin Misher and Marc Abraham
• Commentary by Mike Leeder and Matt Routledge

DISC TWO: BD

• Commentary by Peter Berg and Dwayne Johnson
• Commentary by Kevin Misher and Marc Abraham
• Commentary by Mike Leeder and Matt Routledge
• Rumble in the Jungle (SD – 10:33)
• The Amazon, Hawaii Style (SD – 5:27)
• Appetite for Destruction (SD – 8:21)
• The Rundown Uncensored: A Rock-umentary (SD – 6:08)
• Running Down the Town (SD – 4:09)
• Walken’s World (SD – 5:33)
• Deleted Scenes (SD – 13:50, 9 in all)
• Trailer (HD – 2:36)
• Walking Tall Trailer (HD – 1:14)
• The Hunted Trailer (SD – 2:22)
• Reindeer Games Trailer (SD – 1:40)
• Kindergarten Cop Trailer (HD – 2:03)
• Sudden Death Trailer (HD – 2:16)
• Tropic Thunder Trailer (HD – 2:29)
• Road Trip Trailer (HD – 1:52)

Kino Lorber has added one new extra for this release: a commentary pairing action movie expert Mike Leeder with martial arts filmmaker Matt Routledge. Leeder never lacks for enthusiasm, and needless to say, both of them are enthusiastic fans of The Rundown. They certainly run down a ton of trivia regarding the film, starting with the various proposed titles to just about every other bit of minutiae that you could imagine. They discuss Dwayne Johnson’s career in and out of the ring, as well as the careers of Seann William Scott, Christopher Walken, Rosario Dawson, Ernie Reyes, Jr., and more. They also offer plenty of love for Andy Cheng’s fight choreography and the work of the stunt performers (although they do underestimate the number of times that Johnson was doubled). It’s a fast-paced and entertaining track that’s a great addition to the Rundown canon.

There are also two archival commentaries that were originally recorded for Universal’s 2003 DVD. The first pairs Peter Berg with Dwayne Johnson, and while it’s a little laid back compared to the Leeder and Routledge track, the two of them still have a good time giving each other a hard time. That also means that there’s less hard information here, but it’s still worth a listen (just be prepared for some gaps). The second archival commentary is with producers Kevin Mischer and Marc Abraham, and it’s much more practical (though no less laid back at times). They provide details about the writing, casting, and production of The Rundown, including the post-production elements like the score and the editorial process. This track is also worth a listen, but if your time is limited, start with Leeder and Routledge.

The rest of the extras are featurettes that were all originally produced for Universal’s 2003 DVD, including interviews with Peter Berg, Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Christopher Walken, Ernie Reyes, Jr., Kevin Mischer, Marc Abraham, co-producer Karen Glasser, production designer Thomas Duffield, special effects coordinator Burt Dalton, baboon trainer Kevin Keith, and animal trainer Sled Reynolds (because of course he’s named Sled). One thing is clear throughout all of these featurettes: the antagonistic but good-natured chemistry between Johnson and Scott was quite real.

Rumble in the Jungle focuses on the fight scenes, from the training that the actors underwent to Andy Chang’s fight choreography. The Amazon, Hawaiian Style demonstrates how some of the film’s supposed Brazilian locations were actually filmed in Hawaii. Appetite for Destruction shows off all the guns, explosions, and cattle stampedes in The Rundown (no roses, unfortunately). The Rundown Uncensored: A Rock-umentary is a tongue-and-cheek look at filming the baboon sequence (while making Johnson and the lead baboon comfortable with each other). Running Down the Town demonstrates another location switcheroo: building Hatcher’s tropical compound in the Los Angeles desert. Walken’s World is about—well, you can probably figure that one out for yourself. Finally, there’s a collection of Deleted Scenes that consists mostly of scene extensions and alternate takes.

That’s all of the previously available extras for The Rundown, at least from a domestic perspective. There is a series of brief interview clips that were originally included as Easter eggs on various Columbia DVD releases overseas, and were later compiled as the featurette Jungle Vision on various Sony Blu-ray versions, but they’re still MIA domestically with this release. (They could be hidden somewhere here as an Easter egg, but not that I could find, and Kino doesn’t normally do Easter eggs anyway.) That’s small potatoes though, especially considering how good the new commentary track is, and the new 4K presentation leaves all others in the dust. If you love The Rundown, this is a mandatory upgrade.

-Stephen Bjork

(You can follow Stephen on social media at these links: Twitter, Facebook, BlueSky, and Letterboxd).