Rating:  

TriStar Pictures, Castle Rock Entertainment, State Street Pictures, and CBS Films.

Written by: Tony Gayton & Joe Gayton.

Another in a long line of empty-headed revenge films, “Faster” is a bloody throwback to the avenging bad-ass movies of the 1970s and 1980s. Free from a 10-year stint in the big house after being double-crossed in a drug deal gone bad, Driver (Dwayne Johnson) is told by Warden (Tom Berenger) that he should be a better man now. Short on words, Driver is released, finds a car waiting for him, heads to an office building and guns down a man at his own cubicle. So much for jail time offering one a different perspective, huh?

We later learn that Driver’s brother, Gary (Matt Gerald), was murdered in that drug deal and Driver’s purpose now that he is a free man? Kill everyone associated with the death of his brother. We follow Driver and his travails, which eventually lead to a drug-addicted cop trying to stay clean (Billy Bob Thornton), his widowed sister-in-law (Jennifer Carpenter), and various other stock caricatures such as Bouncer, Bail Bondsman, and Evangelist. Additionally, Killer (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) is on his path as well, hired by a mystery man, and Killer, in love with Fiance (Maggie Grace), seeks one last job to retire comfortably and start a new chapter in his life.

“Faster” is absurd and frankly, dumb. I didn’t expect Shakespeare here, but at the same time the storyline created by Tony & Joe Gayton is so simplistic and basic that it feels like a screenplay computer spit out a standard revenge movie storyline and they plugged the details in. “Faster” plays like a cinematic Mad Libs. With blood. And murder. And drugs. And people pleading for their lives.

And the names of the main characters are indeed…Driver. Killer. Warden. Cop. Evangelist. Huh? Is that um…edgy? And with that originality, the best you could come up for Driver’s brother is the name Gary? Actually, Fiance may have had a name, but I have no idea what it is and honestly, I could care less.

Dwayne Johnson, a/k/a WWE’s The Rock, is fine here but is given absolutely nothing to do but shoot people, drive, hold back tears, and say maybe 200 words of dialogue at the most. It’s the kind of role that Sylvester Stallone made famous in his 1980s R-rated action movie successes and the entire film feels stuck in time. Johnson’s charisma can only offer so much and when the twists and turns arrive late in the film, nothing has mattered up to that point, so why care now? It’s a largely predictable bloodbath, with a pointless story about retribution tacked on to the carnage and instantly forgettable.

Should I See It?

I suppose this is the stereotypical “guys movie”, and so there will be an audience for it certainly. Lots of blood, death, and illogical action sequences can be just what the doctor ordered for some viewers.

It moves quickly and lives up to its name.

“Faster” is completely pointless. An 80′s style revenge film might have a purpose one day, but this is just a waste of Johnson, Thornton, Carla Gugino, and the viewer’s time.

I get “The Rock” has grown weary of kids movies, but this was his choice to return to R-rated/adult fare? He’s too talented to be doing these kind of movies. And how much did Thornton get paid to slum around here? Just a head-scratcher all the way around…