"Faster" (2010)

“Faster” is Dwayne Johnson’s first real action movie since “Doom”. I think I can speak for a majority when I say; thank god The Rock is doing action movies again. Lucky for him, it won’t be hard to match the bar that was set by “Doom”. With all those family/comedy movie that he has done recently, I was slowly losing respect for him. He is one of the few actors out there that can play a role of a badass that we think about from the past. Big muscle man with that tough guy presence. More on the movie after the jump.

Similarly to a lot of other brainless action movies, the story is fairly shallow and has almost little to enhance the movie. It tells the stories of three men; Driver (Johnson), Cop (Billy Bob Thornton) and Killer (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). Driver just got out of jail after robbing a bank, but that is not all. After the heist he and his crew get ambushed by another gang. As he watches his brother die in front of his eyes, he promises that he’ll kill them all. Now on a free man, Driver wastes no time chasing down the men who killed his brother. Cop is hot on his tail, only a few days from retirement he takes this job. And the Killer is hired by a mysterious man to take out the Driver before he takes out anymore of the henchmen.

The Rock is still a badass.

Right off the bat I’m glad this movie did not try to hide its main goal and that was to kick ass. This movie is filled with explosions, guns and cars. It sort of reminds me of the good ol’ 70’s and 80’s style of action. Not all of the action sequences are good, but most are enjoyable. It follows what is to be expected in a Rock movie. There are plenty of scenes where he goes berserk with a gun, beats people up with his HUGE biceps and makes funny faces while getting angry.

Even though the movie focuses on three characters, I only really found Driver interesting. The Cop has one fundamental flaw; he is too boring to really care about. He feels like every other detective. He has no money, no wife, abuses drugs and a scumbag. I never cared for him. And sadly even the Killer wasn’t anything special. He was an egotistical man bored with killing people. So he takes on this last job only due to the fact that the target is a hard man to kill. Besides that, he is fairly boring and not that all interesting to watch.

The car was more interesting than most of the other cast.

Though what really tips this movie over the point of being enjoyable is due to the fact the film doesn’t take itself too seriously. It sticks to what it knows it is good at, and that is action. Also I felt this movie felt like if a 70’s crime movie was to take place now. One man, one goal and no cares in the world. Driver is destined to do what he wants, even if it is the last thing he does. I really like how well he is connected with his car. His early ‘70’s Chevelle appears a lot in the movie and gets into a few picturesque segues that I consider good car porn.

Overall, the movie isn’t fantastic. Though it isn’t a total waste of time, there are plenty of good action scenes that will get arise out of many fans of the action genre. Though, the movie does feel shallow with the very linear story and not so interesting characters. But when you see The Rock kick his way out of mess he gets himself into, it almost makes it worth it.