Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (apparently that's his name again after a return to WWE; he has one more transition before he's thrown into the Prince's Club for Fickle Name Changers) finally made his return to the action scene his fans had been clamoring for in "Faster," a brawny, uneven action thriller that goes from giddily ludicrous to just ludicrous to pompous, back to giddily ludicrous again.
Johnson plays Driver, which is a placeholder for a character that has no name, at least that we're given. He might as well be called Silent Unkillable Badass, because that's something else he is in this movie. He's released from prison for his part in a robbery in which Driver was merely the getaway driver, because, you know, he drives good and stuff. Anyway, some other guys steal their money, kill Driver's brother and shoot Driver in the head. But being all unkillable and stuff, he survives to enact his sweet, sweet vengeance upon them.
Luckily, Driver has some benefactor who stows a cherry Monte Carlo SS and an unnaturally large gun in a junkyard for him, and the game is on.
There's also a contract killer (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) who has been hired to take out Driver, leading to a fun cat-and-mouse game. There's another subplot involving the killer's girl (Maggie Grace) which turns into a big fat nothing (this is because of hasty editing; see below).
Oh, and there's another subplot about a crooked cop (Billy Bob Thornton) who is hooked on drugs and tracking down Driver. Got all that?
Anyway, "Faster" features plentiful carnage, with shootouts, car chases, shootouts during car chases, knife fights, fistfights, and rock fights (well, Rock fights, I suppose). It's R-rated stuff, brutal and violent, and the film is at its best during the all-out craziness.
Unfortunately, there's too much minutiae bogging us down. The Thornton subplot is entirely unnecessary to the film, and too many threads are left unresolved, like Grace's. A quick look at the film's deleted scenes reveals an alternate ending, which was shelved because it didn't test well but offers a better ending for her character. Many of the deleted scenes bring more nuance and depth to some of these ultimately extraneous characters.
"Faster" is a forgettable action flick that is at time really fun, at other times head-scratchingly bad. If you're in the mood for shutting down your brain and watching things go kaboom, you could do worse.
Film: 3 Yaps Extras: 2 Yaps