Review of Faster (2010) by Rocknblues 8 — 27 Apr 2013

Another director wearing his influences on his sleeves with these case thriller. The Rock plays "Driver" a man who (along with his brother) was set up during a robbery and his brother was murdered...Driver himself wounded and left for dead. After 10 years in prison, Driver is released to seek revenge on those who set up and murdered his brother. Thrown into the mix is a hitman who works more for the thrill of the kill rather than the money... And a cop who despite being a few days from retiring, simple can't allow the case to leave his hands.

Mostly it's an hour and a half of over-stylized camera work and action, with some of it not making a lot of sense. The hitman character and his new bride never become interesting... Mainly because any attempt to really ground these characters and their relationship into something real is quickly thrown to the side. One minute the new bride seems to love what he does, but minutes later she is crying because he wants to pull one last job. It's lazy and poorly written. Not effective, and people probably don't care about their relationship, but it felt like lazy writing just the same. The ending was a cop out in my opinion. It had the chance to go out with some balls, but decided to take the easy way out. Overall, it's a mixed bag. Johnson tries his best with limited dialogue and Billy is decent and the soundtrack was great. I just wished the script was better and it was too much style for my taste.