Review of Faster (2010) by Chris H — 04 May 2011

Just note that I'm very close to bumping this one up an extra half star. Letter gradewise, it's like a C+ and half, maybe three-quarters.

Doing the above was not what I fiugred I'd be doing, but this film had me surprised at times. It's actually quite well made, stylish, and actually has some cinematic qualities to it. Underneath the surface, there's actually something to all of it, keeping the film from being totally artless. This sounds weird, but in a way this seemed a bit like an art film to an extent.

The first half is really solid, and is what elevates things. The second half slips some, and starts to unravel, but not quite enough for things to completely fall apart. The film, in a contemporary way, had a very 70s or even noirish quality to it at times, which I why I feel compelled to give it some praise. There's nothing extremely original going on, but they are done competently.

I didnt like all the choices that were made. The script is a little weak, some stuff could have been a little better fleshed out, and a twist comes up that wasn't too surprising, but kind of worked, and right after, the film does something fairly dark and ballsy...but then a bit backs off with a reversal lessening the impact. That didn't kill it for me, but I feel like if you're gonna push some boundaries, you should commit and stick with it.

Billy Bob's hair is ridiculous, but the rest of his character's look is cool, and I like his performance. Johnson is also really good, and almost literally is the definition of "strong silent type". The Preacher character is also really good, and the way that character is handled is better than it needed to be/expected.

One nice touch I need to point out is a certain needle drop. "What Condition My Condition Was In", as soon as it came up, had my attention. I liked its usage, although it would have had far more impact had I not already experienced it's more inspired usage in The Big Lebowski. At least it hasn't become overplayed, though.

All in all, this is just a somewhat better than average revenge film, but it came close to being more than that. The title isn't very good, and rather misleading since this is actually more of a slow burner (that's a good thing), and some of this just needs some work, but I think Geore Tillman Jr. is a director of promise, and on a rainy day, you could watch a lot worse things than this.