By Ben Pearson/March 29, 2017 4:30 pm EST
That’s wrestler/actor John Cena as the title character, and that piece of meta casting may be the most intelligent thing this movie has going for it. Cena is an imposing physical presence in real life, and it makes sense that he’d be the star of a brainless action movie like 12 Rounds. But as we’ve recently seen in comedies like Trainwreck and Sisters, there’s more to him than meets the eye. Hollywood seems to be slowly accepting him as a comedic supporting player, revealing a side to the actor that stands in opposition to audiences’ first impressions of him.
The film is based on a beloved children’s book by Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson that was first published back in 1936. An interesting historic note: Adolf Hitler ordered copies of the book to be burned in Nazi Germany, but a reported 30,000 copies were handed out to the nation’s children following the end of World War II.
Walt Disney adapted the story of Ferdinand into an Oscar-winning animated short in 1938. Check that out below.
This new movie adaptation expands the story considerably, and features a supporting cast that includes SNL star Kate McKinnon, Jane the Virgin’s Gina Rodriguez, Hamilton actor Daveed Diggs, Gabriel Iglesias, Bobby Cannavale, former Doctor Who David Tennant, Anthony Anderson, Jerrod Carmichael, and more.
