I believe Arizona Republic critic Bill Goodykoontz described this picture rather accurately when he called it "a stripped-down affair, from title to characters to plot. It never strives to be more, instead concentrating on making the most of its self-imposed limitations". Interestingly enough, this description seems to fit that of exploitation films that I've talked a bit about, which was what The Rock's (I'm still calling him that) latest action-fest made me think of. Extremely simple in concept, Faster is a revenge-flick much more focused on violent retribution than say Harry Brown (Daniel Barber, 2009). The premise exists solely as pretense for the Rock to flex his guns and practice his mean-looking stare. Silent during most of the movie, Johnson is still convincing as the man hunting down those responsible for his brother's murder, cops Billy Bob Thornton and Carla Gugino hot on his trail. Also chasing him is a hired hit-man (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) who picks the wrong time to stop taking his pills, his control dropping as fast as his target's victims. While I normally excuse poor narrative structure in the name of pure entertainment, the action in Faster seems to lack the 'oomph' necessary to make it work, the run-and-gun sequences being redundant and lacking any unique qualifiers or heightened moments. Even the car chase fails to bring satisfaction beyond the choice of cars involved. Believing 'The Rock' Johnson to be a credible action star since The Rundown (Peter Berg, 2003), I'm still waiting for something to come along that will make as good use of him as that one did; this isn't it.
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