Faster
by Dante Rosario on December 7th, 2010
The Starting Line-up: Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, Carla Gugino, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Maggie Grace, Matt Gerald, and Moon Bloodgood.
The Game Plan: Driver (Dwayne Johnson), part of a group of bank robbers sees his life flash before his eyes when his team is ambushed, and his brother is shot dead in front of him during a bank heist. Driver then spends ten long years in prison, for the failed heist, with the desire for vengeance growing inside him. Now that Driver is out of prison he’s become an unstoppable force of rage intent on killing everyone involved with his brother’s death.
Dante’s Thoughts: This film reminded me of a modern day western, where the lone gunman rides into town and takes out all the bad guys, no questions asked. As far as Dwayne Johnson’s lead role goes – the actor formerly known as The Rock – really reminded me of his old WWE character in this, because I didn’t know whether to smirk or take him seriously as he stomped around hunting down his prey like the Predator. The cheesy pro wrestler like dialogue in this film didn’t help. As far as the plot goes… Driver basically goes around killing any and everyone involved with the murder of his brother. End plot. If it wasn’t for the minor twist at the end of the film, I would have left the theater thinking “Faster” had a simplistic plot. Think tough guy after tough guy with names like Driver, Cop, and Killer, and a lead character with less than 30 lines throughout the entire movie. It doesn’t get much basic than that. There is an effort made to provide some back-story, and shed a little light on the different characters lives, but in the end it all seemed either unnecessary or too vague to even attempt since “Faster” isn’t a movie with a really great plot or great acting. So why bother bringing in needless information about characters that only confused the audience? The acting in this movie is just as simple as the plot. Billy Bob Thornton plays Cop who is co-assigned with Cicero (Carla Gugino) to hunt down and stop Driver. Cicero and Cop somehow know each other’s past, but it is never really explained how. The rest of the supporting cast in this film, are all filler characters.
Touchdowns: The shootouts, and the high-speed chase scenes…they made this movie, and helped it live up to its title.
Penalties: A flag has to be thrown against the plot, for not being well written or thought out. I was hoping there would be a solid explanation about why the particular group of criminals Driver was targeting was so unique? There wasn’t. The only thing that is explained was how the group was able to find out where Driver and his brother would be after the bank heist. Unfortunately, the lack of a good story line creates a domino effect of flaws that includes: bad acting, cheesy characters, nonessential characters, and unnecessary explanations of plot elements that really have nothing to do with the overall story.
The Fumble: Despite the fast paced start “Faster” just didn’t go anywhere. The film spends way too much time backtracking in a failed attempt to provide the audience with cheap clues about what happened in the past, what’s happening now, and what’s going to happen in the future. Sadly when the end did finally come I wasn’t very impressed.
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