At some point between Dwayne Johnson’s early years as a pro-wrestler and his rise to becoming one of the highest-paid actors in the biz today, something about him fizzled out.
His unwillingness to break with this persona has begun to feel played out, not least of all because he seems bored doing it.
Constant rug-pullings complicate this equation, though not in any genuinely surprising ways — the performances are too sleepy and perfunctory to pull off the film’s many tricks and double-crossings with any flair or umph.
The two become buddies in a Russian prison and eventually head to a gala in Valencia, then an underground lair in a South American jungle.
And for a heist movie seemingly planting the seeds for a franchise in the vein of “The Mummy” or “National Treasure” movies, there’s no sense of discovery, no anticipatory thrills as our heroes find and connect the clues.