Faster (2010)

For what it is and it ain't much, Faster has some wierd ideas about redemption. Dwayne Johnson (still The Rock to you and I) plays a wronged man fresh out of the pen out for revenge on the various people responsible for killing his brother. So far so good right? Not the most original idea I know but I'm fine with that- violent revenge stories are normally urban Westerns and will be around even after cockroaches depart their mortal coil.
My beef with Faster is that it is so dour, it's no fun to watch. Revenge stories are best when they are communicating a cathartic thrill. Faster is fully prepared to use exploitative content like drug-use, severe violence and what a film ratings board might call 'themes of child rape and... snuff tapes' but at no point does it feel justified; it all just seems like cynical posturing to get the 'R' rating. Like for example, the guy is a getaway driver and finegles a sweet ride but there is only one car chase.  He's also dangerous prison fighter but all the killing is so blunt- usually by point-blank gunshot to people who don't really defend themselves; it's actually quite pornographic. Now these are bad people who are killed- snuff-filming statutory rapists and telemarketers but still it seems excessive. If I may digress- Faster had the same 15 rating that Easy A, the light vaugely-raunchy teen film, has and i usually think the BBFC get it right but you can't hold these films in the same age-suitablity range.
As for the acting- a mixed bag. The Rock does hurt and sullen between the aforementioned murders which is 'meh'-not bad, not great. Billy Bob Thornton is pretty good, actually a return to the Thornton of the 90's - goofy and swaggerless. Carla Cugino turns up and good like she usually is but the script lets her down.  Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje turns up at the end and I've loved that guy since HBO's Oz. He does alright here with the little help has to work with.
As you may have gathered this film is too light on action (shooting people in the face notwithstanding) to get away with a light script but for all the covoluted non-linear storytelling, the script is pretty featherweight; the big reveal at the end was telegraphed by the halfway point and there's the character of an assassin that's... urgh... i can't even bring myself to say what's going on with that guy but it's superfluous-he added nothing to the film and in fact, detracts from the thing because you hate him out of confusion.
I really expected better from George Tillman Jr at least. He made the Biggie biopic, Notorious and I thought that was pretty good- a servicable biopic which could have gone wrong a hundred ways but turned out fine. Here he fudges the pooch with a simple revenge story. I've seen better Dominic Sena movies. Faster is like a rip-off of a Dominic Sena movie, which is the most sussinct indictment I can think of.

I watched Faster (2010) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with This Sporting Life (1963)...