Review: Faster

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson stars as ‘Driver’, fresh out of jail after 10 years for bank robbery (he was the getaway driver), and not wasting any time in exacting his plan of revenge against the group of crims who were responsible for his brother’s death and taking off with the robbery loot. A bullet to the head saw that Driver never got away, though he was perhaps lucky to have not actually died. Now he has a list, and he’s hell-bent on not wavering from it (or driving anything other than his classic Chevelle), whilst heroin addicted ‘Cop’ played by Billy Bob Thornton (and a few weeks from retirement, I might add, though he looks to have mentally checked out long ago), and a British-accented assassin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) are out to stop him. The latter, by the way, considers killing to be ‘fun’ and boasts that he just ‘beat yoga’. But who is the mystery person behind the assassin? Carla Gugino plays Thornton’s partner, Moon Bloodgood plays Thornton’s estranged wife, and Maggie Grace is the assassin’s girlfriend. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje plays one of the men on Driver’s list, who has turned his life around in the years since. Jennifer Carpenter turns up as another person from Driver’s past.

Despite its speedy title, this 2010 flick from George Tillman Jr. (“Men of Honour”) is less of a high-octane thrill ride than it is a return to the minimalist, brooding, and slow-burning crime/action flicks of the 60s and 70s like “Bullitt” and especially Walter Hill’s “The Driver”. So long as you’re aware of this and appreciative of such films, then you’ll enjoy this one. It’s dour and brooding, but well-shot and a fine B-movie. A slow-burner (but not slow if you know what I mean), it reminds me a bit of the last half of “Mad Max” (with some character similarities to “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” as well as a musical cue lifted from it- there’s lots of influences going on here without being plagiaristic as such).

There’s also some really cool lighting by Michael Grady, as well as some interestingly shaded characters drawn by writers Tony and Joe Gayton (the latter co-scripted Van Damme’s “The Shepherd”), even if the big twist is predictable early on. The twists involving the characters played by Akinnuoye-Agbaje and especially Jennifer Carpenter (whom I love) were quite unexpected and (in the case of the former) unusual. Having said that, Carpenter does end up rather wasted, really, in a perfunctory role. Billy Bob Thornton doesn’t get to do a whole helluva lot here, but it begs mentioning just how talented and versatile this guy is (even if he has a somewhat dickhole public persona). In addition to this role, look at his other works; “Sling Blade”, “A Simple Plan”, “Bad Santa”, “Primary Colours”, and even as far back as “Tombstone”. The guy can play just about everything, and damn near always knocks it out of the park.

Dwayne Johnson is perfectly fine in the lead, though the role doesn’t allow much room for his trademark charisma and swagger. It’s a brooding, monosyllabic role and he’s up to that task. This guy’s got one agenda, and he ain’t gonna fuck around about it. I just think the artist formerly (and still, actually) known as The Rock is even better than the roles he chooses/accepts. However, I really liked that the quirky (and borderline douchy) assassin played by Oliver Jackson-Cohen (the character known in the film as merely ‘Killer’) and the character played by Akinnuoye-Agbaje (from TV’s “Lost”) were humanised. The latter in particular, one comes to feel sorry for. Not only did he play a rather small part in the initial Screwjob, but he has dedicated the most recent years of his life atoning for his sins and attempting to help others reach a higher spiritual place, too. I also rather liked that most of the characters were kinda messed up or damaged in one way or another, it was somewhat unconventional, really. It’s a shame then that the characters played by Moon Bloodgood, Carla Gugino (another one who deserves better than they get offered), and the aforementioned Carpenter end up rather expendable. Meanwhile, even the normally insufferable (well, OK, just in “Lost” really) Maggie Grace is competent here. By the way, why is Tom Berenger only accepting these brief, throwaway roles nowadays? He barely gets more than a cameo in most things these days, and here he’s definitely only given a cameo. I’m not a huge fan, but still, dude was in “Platoon” for cryin’ out loud!

This isn’t your typical, high-octane action film, but the car chases, when we get them, are well-filmed and thankfully mostly free of shaky-cam and other annoying camera trickfuckery (a bit zoom-happy and slow-mo obsessed at times, but that’s it). I wouldn’t call the style restrained, but these scenes are more enjoyable than in a lot of action films these days where you can’t tell what the hell is going on. Well-edited, well-shot, car nuts will respond well to this, even if it’s not as pulsating as you might expect. A rock-solid, minimalist actioner on the B-level. Good soundtrack, too.

Rating: B-