Director: George Tillman Jr
Writer: Tony Gayton, Joe Gayton (Screenplay)
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, Maggie Grace, Carla Gugino, Mike Epps, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Jennifer Carpenter, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Moon Bloodgood
Plot: An ex-con gets on a series of apparently unrelated killings. He gets tracked by a veteran cop with secrets of his own and an egocentric hit man.
Tagline – Slow Justice is No Justice
Runtime:1 Hour 38 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Faster starts when a man known only as Driver (Johnson) is released from prison, running straight to his prized car, driving straight to a location to execute a man in the middle of an office, drawing the attention of detective Cicero (Gugino) and Cop (Thornton).
As Driver continues the rampage against the people that killed his brother and left him for dead, he will find himself being tracked down on an assassin Killer (Jackson-Cohen) who is suffering from an identity crisis, leading to a battle of wits, with bodies left laying everywhere Driver passes through.
Thoughts on Faster
Characters & Performances – Driver has been in prison for years, waiting for his chance to get free and get revenge on the people that betrayed and murdered his brother and left him for dead. He has one thing on his mind, bloodshed, he will not stop going after the people, he doesn’t care who sees him commit the crimes, his relentless nature if the driving force for him, only targeting the people that took his family. This is the first film that Dwayne Johnson did after the family friendly roles, he gets to show the new levels of intensity that help make him a true action star. Cop is the drug addict that is nearing retirement, his addictions are only causing more problems in his life and seeing Driver on his rampage gives him a case he doesn’t want to be involved in. he seems to still be in his role because of the reputation, rather than his current abilities. Billy Bob Thornton does make this character very interesting, as we never know how this character is going to act next. Killer is an assassin hired to kill Driver he has been going through his own identity crisis wanting to find a purpose from his actions, not feeling challenged anymore, he wants to settle down, which is girlfriend wants him to do, but he gets fascinated with trying to capture Driver. Oliver Jackson-Cohen does give us one of the most interesting performances in any assassins, showing us the one that is skilled enough, but not interested enough in completing jobs. This movie does have a big set of characters that will look to either investigate or be in the way of Driver, each one makes sense to the world, with each performance working very well in the film.
Story – The story here follows a man released from prison that goes on a rampage to track down the people that left his brother dead and him for dead, not stopping until he gets everyone. This is a simple enough story, with the revenge theme in the story working well, we know this is going to become a clean revenge action story, that is going to give us a few twists along the way, which seem to get reflected in the assassin hunting him down, not quite sure what to make of the situation anymore. This is an easy to watch film and will leave us wanting to see more from this world created.
Themes – Faster is an action movie that doesn’t hold back on the shooting, we don’t get into more than one hand to hand combat fight, it is a pure shot and kill to get the message across. We have the fast cars used to show the urgency of the time between the kills, with the different cities and open roads, showing how far Driver must travel to get his revenge.
Faster is a high octane action experience that doesn’t relent from the pacing of revenge.
