Review of Faster (2010) by Tom M — 19 Apr 2011

For something that I expected to laugh through, I was pleasantly surprised by the weight of this escapist bit of revenge flicking. Who knew this would be one of the few neck-muscle actioners we get each year that have control of its dialogue and maturity in its voice. There are some very dark themes to this, and it keeps them legitimate by not insisting on catch phrases and unlikely battle chatter. In fact it almost doesn't even insist on battle. Violence sure, but believable and often unglamorously done. In fact, despite its action-hero leading man and adrenaline-junkie audience targeting, Faster is one of the more intellectually and emotionally impressive revenge movies to come out in quite some time.

It wants to be taken somewhat seriously, it wants to have some real substance, it wants to make you a bit uneasy about the coldness with which things are going down. And its able to do all this because it finds a nice balance between respectability and fun. The first time Driver kills someone, the way its presented, you realize the movie is trying to make a point moreso than be stylish, and from then on every time it doesn't ruin a scene with clumsy dialogue there's a slight sigh of relief that its maintaining and holding itself to a standard. Yet it IS stylish enough that any shallow moments that pop up along the way are pretty easily written off.

I'd even consider watching this a second time. Nice to be getting some true popcorners lately that aren't totally insulting.