Weekend Movie Review: Faster

It's been a long time since I've seen an action movie, so I decided to go check out Faster.

Faster is a fairly straightforward revenge flick, with a twist or two thrown in. The basic premise is that a man who was a driver in a bank robbery gets out of prison, and immediately starts hunting down a group who ambushed his gang for the money and killed his brother in the process.

Thoughts on the movie.

1. The acting wasn't bad. You expect good things from Billy Bob Thornton, but Dwayne Johnson didn't do too bad either. Johnson's main problem is that any role he plays, you still mainly see Dwayne Johnson. Schwarzenneger sort of had that problem but he knew how to play to that, and chose his roles accordingly. The problem here is that Johnson may have chosen a role that might have worked better with a different actor. Like I said, he didn't do bad. But there were a couple of scenes that really needed a better acting talent than him to pull off.

2. The action was okay. Despite the rating, there wasn't near the blood I expected. I got the definite impression the moviemaker was going for a "noir" feel at times, and chose to understate the blood a tad. It wasn't a bad call. But at the same time, everytime you thought the movie was about to go over the top with the violence, it never really did. So it didn't really have that "actiony" feel. Again, I think they were reaching for "gritty" instead. They sort of halfway made it.

3. I think the week part of the movie was the plotline itself. There were a couple of characters, a hitman and his girlfriend, that felt completely stapled onto the movie. It was as if they were added in a "hey, this would be cool to put in there" sort of way. There was also a twist at the end which was decent, and if they would have left it right there the movie would have been better. But again, it was as if the writer wanted to throw in another scene just because "wouldn't it be cool if this happened." Even though I confess the second surprise was forshadowed, the movie would have been better without it. The other problem is that the movie tries to be a little deep, and doesn't really pull it off well. Again, it doesn't completely fail...it just would have been better if maybe it didn't try in places to be something more than it's main actor could pull off.

So in the end, how do I rate this?

I'm going to say "not bad." It's definitely matinee fair, so don't pay full price for this one. Or just catch it on DVD. If you like action or revenge flicks, it's worth a reduced price viewing.

In other news I've got a cub scout event with Sheridan to attend Saturday morning, and since Karla is working I'll have to have Rowan in tow as well. Wish me luck, folks. I'm gonna need it.