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I went to the theatre this past Wednesday and saw the movie "Faster" and I didn't see any reviews for this film yet, so I will give it a shot.
(Unfortunately the editor is not allowing me to post pictures...it is considering them links for some reason.)
Title: Faster
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Maggie Grace
Release Date: November 24th, 2010
Genre: Action / Crime / Drama
Synopsis: Dwayne Johnson plays "Driver", a man who was part of a crew that did a successful bank robbery and was double crossed by another crew who killed his brother in the process. Driver is released from a ten year stretch in prison at the beginning of the film and is completely over taken by one motive, killing everyone responsible for his brother's murder.
Billy Bob Thornton's character is called "Cop", a detective on the brink of retirement whose marriage is failing. He is placed on the case of the trail of bodies left by Driver's revenge spree and seems to have an increasingly suspicious connection to the events that builds throughout the film.
Oliver Jackson-Cohen portrays an assassin dubbed "Killer" who is as self absorbed as he is dangerous. An anonymous party contracts with him to murder Driver in an attempt to cut his revenge parade short.
Positives: Finally, The Rock has come back from his hiatus in the family genre to kick some roody poo candy ass. And he does, but not in the manner we are accustomed to witnessing. Driver is an efficient, calculating, and cold killer who doesn't waste any time slapping anybody around.
I admire the work ethic of Dwayne Johnson who could easily make the exact same movie over and over again playing the exact same type of character and be extremely successful. Instead he obviously works very hard to expand his range and even though I didn't think he completely nailed this part, his efforts are very admirable.
I loved the contrast between Driver and Killer, two men with similar objectives that couldn't be any more different. Driver is raw power and speed while Killer relies on much more sleek, intuitive, and finesse methods. This provides a pleasing visual message with a lasting and impressive impact.
Negatives: There is really only one hand to hand combat scene which was way too short. I think it would have been nice to see Driver really get his hands on somebody and work them over but mostly he just shoots them in the head and drives away.
There is some cheesy dialogue but it wasn't so much that it was severely distracting. The title of the movie is also very lame in retrospect after you discover why it is called "Faster". I'm not sold on the creative value of labelling the three main characters Driver, Cop, and Killer when everybody else has a real name and it is kind of weird that nobody addresses those three by any name whatsoever. It didn't really add anything to the movie.
Overall: This is a dark revenge picture with very few moments of levity that tried to achieve some sembelance of originality with limited success. It wasn't a homerun but it also wasn't a total disaster either. I'd reccomend this to fans of Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, and of this genre of film but it doesn't appear to have much crossover value.
(Unfortunately the editor is not allowing me to post pictures...it is considering them links for some reason.)
Title: Faster
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Maggie Grace
Release Date: November 24th, 2010
Genre: Action / Crime / Drama
Synopsis: Dwayne Johnson plays "Driver", a man who was part of a crew that did a successful bank robbery and was double crossed by another crew who killed his brother in the process. Driver is released from a ten year stretch in prison at the beginning of the film and is completely over taken by one motive, killing everyone responsible for his brother's murder.
Billy Bob Thornton's character is called "Cop", a detective on the brink of retirement whose marriage is failing. He is placed on the case of the trail of bodies left by Driver's revenge spree and seems to have an increasingly suspicious connection to the events that builds throughout the film.
Oliver Jackson-Cohen portrays an assassin dubbed "Killer" who is as self absorbed as he is dangerous. An anonymous party contracts with him to murder Driver in an attempt to cut his revenge parade short.
Positives: Finally, The Rock has come back from his hiatus in the family genre to kick some roody poo candy ass. And he does, but not in the manner we are accustomed to witnessing. Driver is an efficient, calculating, and cold killer who doesn't waste any time slapping anybody around.
I admire the work ethic of Dwayne Johnson who could easily make the exact same movie over and over again playing the exact same type of character and be extremely successful. Instead he obviously works very hard to expand his range and even though I didn't think he completely nailed this part, his efforts are very admirable.
I loved the contrast between Driver and Killer, two men with similar objectives that couldn't be any more different. Driver is raw power and speed while Killer relies on much more sleek, intuitive, and finesse methods. This provides a pleasing visual message with a lasting and impressive impact.
Negatives: There is really only one hand to hand combat scene which was way too short. I think it would have been nice to see Driver really get his hands on somebody and work them over but mostly he just shoots them in the head and drives away.
There is some cheesy dialogue but it wasn't so much that it was severely distracting. The title of the movie is also very lame in retrospect after you discover why it is called "Faster". I'm not sold on the creative value of labelling the three main characters Driver, Cop, and Killer when everybody else has a real name and it is kind of weird that nobody addresses those three by any name whatsoever. It didn't really add anything to the movie.
Overall: This is a dark revenge picture with very few moments of levity that tried to achieve some sembelance of originality with limited success. It wasn't a homerun but it also wasn't a total disaster either. I'd reccomend this to fans of Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, and of this genre of film but it doesn't appear to have much crossover value.