Ray (Dave Bautista) is a cop with a sordid past reduced to working as head of security at a strip club that serves as a front for an illegal gambling operation. When the club is robbed and its owner’s son shot dead Ray finds himself set up to take the blame. Determined to clear his name Ray looks to find the person responsible before the cops or the mob catch up with him.
The easy way out of reviewing House of the Rising Sun would be to simply say that it stars a WWE superstar as an ex-cop working in a strip club. It’s no secret that, unless you are Dwayne Johnson, the track record for films starring wrestling celebrities is almost on par with films starring Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson. There’s a reason why wrestlers are often cast as killers with a limited ability to speak. While the over-the-top grandstanding might work in a wrestling ring it doesn’t translate very well to films. So, when I say that Bautista is far better than I expected don’t start engraving an Oscar with his name. He’s wooden, but restrained in a way that makes the film, as absolutely ridiculous and clichéd as it is, fairly entertaining in a generic B-movie sort of way. Sadly Danny Trejo’s role as Carlos, the crime boss, is nothing more than an extended cameo and I have no idea how Amy Smart was convinced to jump into the fray.
Bonus features include an earnest, but often boring, audio commentary with director Brian A. Miller and Bautista, interviews with the cast, the film’s trailer and a making-of featurette. None of which add up to much.