There was a scene in a movie called The Rundown, where famed action star turned governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wishes upcoming action star Dwayne Johnson good luck in passing, as a sort of passing of the torch to the next great action star. No longer The Rock, Johnson took the torch and did movies like the Tooth Fairy. Faster looks to be a return to form for the great action star, but will it be everything we wanted? Well, it's not what we expected.
Faster involves three characters, all having a bit of a connection with a bank heist turned double-cross, resulting in Johnson's brothers death. As the movie begins, we see Johnson get out of jail and making a B-line to those who killed his brother. We also meet a rich boy turned hitman, only looking for a challenge in life, and finding one in his latest hit; Johnson's character, and finally, Billy Bob Thornton's cop character, trying to hunt down the murderer of several men before more are killed.
First off, this is not what I expected from the action packed trailer. The movie was not nearly as much action as it is a suspense movie with guns, and lots and lots of shots of Dwayne Johnson looking stern. The movie seemed to be a series of scenes involving either Johnson driving to his next hit, or the quick, in and out hit itself, with really very little else. The action shots seemed really off, with director George Tillman Jr. (Men of Honor) going with a shaky cam style with lots and lots of quick cuts.
The idea on whether Johnson's character should kill the people involved with his brother's death is one the movie likes to play with. Instead of some movies showing the soon-to-be victims as total D-Bags in an effort to make the audience feel better about their impending doom, the movie shows them as family men; fathers and husbands. This makes every hit more tension filled and more ethically murky. Sure, we are reminded of the events that lead to Johnson's brother's death, but then we are shown a good, reformed, apologetic guy. This movie uses this to great effect in one scene involving Lost's Mr. Ecko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), where the murderer turned priest wants nothing but forgiveness, and the back and forth between the two is incredible, with the debate on whether he should be executed or not.
The character of the rich mogul turned hitman is terrible, and has nothing to do with the story. It involves a guy similar to Johnson's characters moral struggle on whether to pull the trigger, although with different reasons. Either way, the character does very little, and has a totally anti-climactic ending. Thornton's drug using cop is an interesting character, however, and his ties to the murder is interesting, as he plays a cop looking for retirement. He's partnered with Carla Gugino, and as such, makes a good, and very murky character in a movie filled with them.
If you were looking for a good action movie involving a great '71 Chavelle, a promising action star, some gorgeous women and Billy Bob Thornton, then you will be disappointed. If you go in with little expectations, you will get a movie with some great scenes chained together in a movie with sloppy action shots, a stern-looking Dwayne Johnson and a great scene with Mr. Ecko. Overall, it's more of a rent then a movie theater event.
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