Your basic graphically violent revenge film, however I was pleasantly surprised by the setup it took as well as the overall story. Faster stars Dwayne Johnson, as Driver, Billy Bob Thorton, as Cop, and Oliver Jackson-Cohen, as Killer. Those are the characters, their names are never mentions, creating a mysterious theme around them, but that's how they are seen and referred to throughout. The film follows Driver through his revenge plan, while also following the 2 the other characters, Cop and Killer, as they try to chase down Driver. It starts off with Driver being released from prison, getting his car that has a gun and information on where to find a man, whom he ends up gunning down in a middle of an office building. All of this happens within in the first 10 minutes, so there is very little time wasted on getting to the action which is always a plus. From here your introduced to Billy Bob Thorton's character, Cop, who is almost retired, a heroin addict, and the usual hard ass that Thorton has played so often. He's partners with Carla Gugino and they are the cops who are trying to hunt down Driver and/or find the people he is trying to kill. We are then introduced to Killer, who we see is a multi millionaire, lives in a giant house, has started up multiple computer companies, has a beautiful girl friend, and a master of essentially every challenge he comes up against. He's also an assassin, which is no mystery to his girlfriend, and is given a job to kill Driver as soon as possible. From there it's a lot of decent action scenes, some pretty good music, the mystery behind why Driver is trying to kill these people and comparisons between these 3 characters.
The cast actually isn't as bad as I thought it would. Dwayne Johnson finally took a break from his children movies and came back to action films and it's good to see him back in his original genre. He doesn't a decent job throughout the film but that can mainly be attributed to the fact that he says hardly anything the entire hour and 40 minutes. Billy Bob Thorton is great as always, playing his usual role but one that I personally never get tired of seeing him in. I haven't seen much of anything with Oliver Jackson-Cohen but he pretty much steals the show I think. His story is easily the most interesting of the three, which somewhat works as a big disadvantage for the overall film. One of the cooler parts of the story behind his character is how much he charges to kill somebody and his motivation behind it. I wanted to learn and see more about his character than I did about Cop or worst yet Driver, the motivating character of the whole movie.
George Tillman Jr. Is the director behind Faster, and does a decent job with the film. The action scenes are done pretty well done , it's nothing that you haven't seen before. Fast cuts, loud gun shots, the usual. Where he does excel however is with the pacing of the film. He takes your basic revenge thriller and turns it into this character study and mystery. He's constantly comparing the 3 main characters in the film with each other from relationships, personality, parents, obsession/addictions, to name just a few. By doing this when the finale occurs when all three characters are together makes for a very suspenseful and intense scene.
Overall it's nothing that's going to blow you away or leave a lasting impression, however I was surprised at how much I did enjoy it. I first started watching it because I was tried from work and just want a no think, brainless movie, but that's not what I got. I don't know if I liked it because I was surprised or if it's actually a good film... So don't hesitate to tell me I'm wrong here. Check it out, it's a pretty good character study if anything, and has some decent action scenes to boot and you can't go wrong with a Billy Bob Thorton film.
The cast actually isn't as bad as I thought it would. Dwayne Johnson finally took a break from his children movies and came back to action films and it's good to see him back in his original genre. He doesn't a decent job throughout the film but that can mainly be attributed to the fact that he says hardly anything the entire hour and 40 minutes. Billy Bob Thorton is great as always, playing his usual role but one that I personally never get tired of seeing him in. I haven't seen much of anything with Oliver Jackson-Cohen but he pretty much steals the show I think. His story is easily the most interesting of the three, which somewhat works as a big disadvantage for the overall film. One of the cooler parts of the story behind his character is how much he charges to kill somebody and his motivation behind it. I wanted to learn and see more about his character than I did about Cop or worst yet Driver, the motivating character of the whole movie.
George Tillman Jr. Is the director behind Faster, and does a decent job with the film. The action scenes are done pretty well done , it's nothing that you haven't seen before. Fast cuts, loud gun shots, the usual. Where he does excel however is with the pacing of the film. He takes your basic revenge thriller and turns it into this character study and mystery. He's constantly comparing the 3 main characters in the film with each other from relationships, personality, parents, obsession/addictions, to name just a few. By doing this when the finale occurs when all three characters are together makes for a very suspenseful and intense scene.
Overall it's nothing that's going to blow you away or leave a lasting impression, however I was surprised at how much I did enjoy it. I first started watching it because I was tried from work and just want a no think, brainless movie, but that's not what I got. I don't know if I liked it because I was surprised or if it's actually a good film... So don't hesitate to tell me I'm wrong here. Check it out, it's a pretty good character study if anything, and has some decent action scenes to boot and you can't go wrong with a Billy Bob Thorton film.