A few weeks back, I was surprised to find out, thanks to Doc Remedy, that Wrong Side of Town was coming out, completely under the radar, starring Rob Van Dam, and current WWE star, and hell, champion, David Batista. Or was that Bautista? Yes, they had to use his real name. And a WWE Films project, this is not.
You might have been surprised by that fact. It’s straight to DVD, as the last two WWE Films were, and still involves a WWE contracted wrestler that I don’t remember taking that much time off. Anyways, I was also amazed to find this movie was available maybe a week after release…on Netflix Streaming. What? This can’t be a good sign.
So I sat down and took a look. First, you would think that Batista is prominently featured based on that cover. But no, Rob Van Dam is our hero. Batista maybe gets twenty minutes, and it looked like you don’t even see him until about 40 minutes. Over half way through the movie. We know a few things: 1. Batista loves the strip club 2. Batista looks ridiculous holding a mini machine gun, 3. this is where he got his latest heel look. Rob Van Dam is…Rob Van Dam. He’s supposed to be a hard ass Navy Seal, but is hobbled by an injury early into the action and limps about. Of course forgetting how to sell whenever he has to fight a mob of bad guys. Big Daddy V/Viscera/Mable makes an appearance that makes you appreciate how big this guy is.
But is it enjoyable? Well, it sort of makes The Marine 2 look like high art, actually. The editing is novice. The script is rough. The bad guy in this film uses the same insults multiple times. “Rat bastard”, I believe it was, and it sounded forced every time. The fights are ok. The humor is almost nonexistant. In the end, I failed to find the point of this film.
Welcome to the No Holds Barred of 2010! Watch it/collect it for your wrestlers in film curiosity, but that’s about it.