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A few weeks ago, I watched the action/adventure/thriller/mystery movies "National Treasure" and "National Treasure 2" on DVD to escape into a strange world of secret codes, underground tunnels, and George Washington. I thought I was shutting my brain off from wrestling, but when I re-watched WWE Studios's "12 Rounds" DVD starring John Cena, I flashed back to sequences from the movie of the hero overcoming every conceivable stacked deck on his way to the happy ending.

Having already watched Cena's flick in theaters back in March, I tried to approach the DVD as if I hadn't watched the movie before in an effort to "suspend disbelief" and not tune out important clues in the dialogue that really make this movie worth watching a second time.

"12 Rounds" follows a script similar to the National Treasure series as Nicolas Cage's character goes through several "rounds" of bizarre clues that lead him to a treasure. Of course, there is an international villain with an accent, just like in "12 Rounds," and there are several moments when the hero suddenly is the smartest man alive to understand exactly what every clue means.

In WWE's movie, John Cena's character takes us through similar moments before he rescues the damsel in distress. (Cage's character is accompanied by the damsel who gets into various moments of distress.) Cena's character is scripted to be "simply human" when it comes to overcoming physical action, but he develops brainiac-like qualities to solve seemingly unsolvable riddles placed in New Orleans by lead villain Miles Jackson.

After watching non-wrestling movies for leisure, I check with famous movie reviewer Roger Ebert for his review. What he said about heroes who develop super-human thinking in movie scripts stuck with me after watching Cage's movies. It's certainly applicable to "12 Rounds." An excerpt from his review of "National Treasure:"

The movie's hero, named Benjamin Franklin Gates and played by Nicolas Cage, is able to intuitively sense the occult meanings of ancient riddles and puzzles is less a tribute to his intelligence than to the screenplay supplying him with half a dozen bonus A-ha! Moments. An A-Ha! Moment, you will recall, is that moment at which a movie character suddenly understands something which, if he did not understand it, would bring the entire enterprise to a halt.

"12 Rounds" wouldn't have been much of a movie without those A-Ha! Moments from Cena's character. If he didn't figure out the longitude/latitude code on a "Katrina house," which bomb to toss in the water, or the fact that M. Jackson was leading him and the FBI on a round-and-around chase through the city, there would not have been a movie.

The key is whether the movie-watcher can suspend disbelief and, if so, how long the viewer can suspend disbelief before deciding the movie is too fanciful to buy into.

"12 Rounds" walks that fine line. The movie presents Cena's character, Detective Danny Fisher, as a regular guy with regular problems who springs to life as a police officer. Fair enough. The super-human thinking, though, is a bit of a stretch, but is off-set by the seemingly normal physical abilities attributed to Fisher.

Head writer Daniel Kunka deserves credit for piecing together a smart script to navigate around potential pitfalls of the movie. (Kunka was interviewed by Derek Burgan in the Torch VIP audio section this weekend and he described essentially every small detail that went into the final product of the movie.)

One of the A-Ha! Moments for the audience watching the movie is at the end when Cena pieces together what all of the "12 Rounds" actually means leading to the finish. The beauty of the script, though, was lead villain Miles Jackson revealing the finish at the beginning of the movie after double-crossing the villain who double-crossed the FBI. (That's a plot line right out of National Treasure.)

Jackson delivers one very key line that most people would have written off as a throwaway line. However, Kunka's script had meaning and depth to show how the story would unravel, how Fisher would piece together all of the clues, and how Fisher would anticipate Jackson's final move.

Many reviewers and wrestling fans quickly wrote off the movie because (a) it starred John Cena and (b) it could be viewed as a cheesy, knock-off, low-budget action film. However, the story is simple enough to follow, but is written smartly enough to "soften the blow" of Fisher's super-human thought processes with intelligent interaction with other characters and his environment in New Orleans.

Even when the viewer is tempted to fast-forward through the trolley scene or other long chase scenes, something new will grab the viewer to retain interest in the details of the seen-it-before scenes.

Watching "12 Rounds" a second time, I'm reminded of Cena's improvement as an actor compared to his first stab in the dark with "The Marine." WWE helped him out with an upgraded script trying to give the audience a smarter WWE movie experience.

The DVD is recommended for a quick trip to Redbox or Blockbuster with a bag of popcorn and a mindset for "escapism," just like the tag line says on the TV promos. It's a typical "mid-card" Hollywood movie aimed for the masses that knows its role and doesn't try to be more than it's capable of being. And that makes for a perfectly acceptable movie experience.

FYI: Included on the DVD is a worth-the-price-of-admission Bonus Commentary from John Cena and writer Daniel Kunka describing the movie as it plays out. Movie fans will like this feature for insight into the making of the movie, even if you're not a fan of WWE Films's movies, John Cena, or the action/adventure genre. The movie is available on DVD and blu-ray format on Amazon.com and major retailers.

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