Review for Faster

Driver (Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson) has spent the last ten years in prison and upon release he now has just one goal: To hunt down and kill the people responsible for his attempted murder and the murder of his brother. Armed with a gun a sweet car, he is determined to track down the people who were involved and deliver his own brand of justice.

Hot on his heels the police are trying to stop them. Cicero (Carla Gugino) is investigating the connection between the murders aided by Cop (Billy Bob Thornton) who is close to retirement and wants to put Driver's vigilante mission to an end before he does. And if he can't, then Killer (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) an egotistical hitman sent out to kill Driver may beat him to it.

Faster is your typical action film. By that, I mean is simply popcorn-fodder, full of action, stunts, guns and not much else. It does bring up the idea of what will revenge actually achieve and unlike Kill Bill in which all her revenge kills were thoroughly justified many of the people who were involved in his brother's murder are for minor things such as being the look out. It makes the killing of these people almost like watching Michael killing a number of Fredo's rather than just one. Though when you see what they did to his brother and how he was left for dea, you have to put your conscience on the backburner and conclude that they are deserved it.

Johnson's performance is fine and over the years he has established himself as a confident leading man of this type of film. The performance of Billy Bob Thornton is a little wasted in this film and at times I wish that he had been given more to do to really see more of this character.

What I wish I'd seen less of was Jackson-Cohen's Killer. This was an embarrassing performance that tried too hard to be a mix between Jude Law and Jason Statham and the reason it fails is his accent. I will assume that this is his real voice as if it isn't it is the worst Cockney accent in film since Dick Van Dyke's. Every scene he was in, I was almost tempted to press mute and the dialogue sounds like an American writer trying to write what they think the typical Cockney would say. I half expected him to start using rhyming slang and singing 'When I'm Cleaning Windows'! The rest of the cast are fine, though really other than these three characters no one else is really fleshed out to make that much of an impact.

The film is fine in general. It is not exactly a masterpiece, but I don't think I expected it to be. The action set pieces are good, it is well shot with an excellent score by Clint Mansell. The twist (or twists) at the end of the film is great and I did not see either coming. However, thankfully the film does not rely on the twist and so can be watched again without that spoiling it.

Extras include ten minutes of deleted scenes with Director's introduction.These are ok with some of them adding a bit more depth to the film and the introduction is an interesting way to explain why they were cut or indeed filmed at all. The Alternative ending is interesting and I can't decide whether I enjoyed it more than the one they settled on. Again it includes an introduction which at least showed that the Director was willing to listen to the opinions of those who watched the test screenings. It is a shame that there are no behind the scenes featurettes, though they are included on the blu-ray version.

Faster is an enjoyably forgettable film. It is doubtful that I would watch it again, or indeed remember anything about it either. However, it is a solid film that those who enjoy mindless action and violence will enjoy.