Dwayne Johnson

After all the babysitting he's been doing in movies like "Tooth Fairy" and "Race to Witch Mountain," it's a twisted relief to see Dwayne Johnson shoot a telemarketer in the forehead early on in the new revenge picture "Faster."

This is an overpacked suitcase disguised as a movie, which is appropriate since Johnson is a bulging array of musculature disguised as an ordinary human.

He's good screen company, though, make no mistake.

The film, a CBS Films effort, offers a few stray diversions, even if it plays like three TV crime-drama pilots mistakenly scheduled in the same time slot.

The ex-con played by Johnson did 10 years for his role in a bank robbery that turned very bloody. His role was that of getaway driver. He is labeled, onscreen, only as DRIVER. A blase assassin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) is identified onscreen as KILLER. Billy Bob Thornton, skeezed-up (in high-def digital skeeze, yet) plays a Bakersfield, Calif., police detective with a heroin problem. He's known only as COP. Carla Gugino, his partner, for some reason has a real name, though consistency would dictate she be labeled BETTER-LOOKING COP.

The script by Tony Gayton and Joe Gayton isn't really a vehicle for Johnson; it's more of a three-headed narrative that keeps knocking heads. Once DRIVER gets out of prison, he begins running down his little death list of people -- terrible, icky people -- who would deserve to die even if they hadn't killed his beloved half-brother. The wrinkle in "Faster" is that it presents a host of domestic and parental challenges for most of the characters. Apartment hallway shootouts imperil preteens who just happen to be in the wrong place; the COP finds his investigation of the serial-killing DRIVER conflicting with his commitments, met with only partial success, to his Little League-playing son.

Director George Tillman Jr. manages to get a decent time-waster out of "Faster" (dull title, no?). But the most vivid and expressive supporting player is not human, which is tricky if you're trying to make a movie in which humans play a part. The scene-stealer happens to be a black Chevy Chevelle, which DRIVER drives like a pro. The movie exists for its squealing-tire spins and high-speed-in-reverse moves. The car has more moves than the movie. But just as "Unstoppable" reminds us of the simple satisfactions delivered by a slab of rolling metal, out of control, the comparatively bland "Faster" at least reinforces how much joyful noise the right car can make, when driven by the right DRIVER and amped-up by a sound designer in love with that Chevelle.

 

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"Faster" Movie Trailer

 

MPAA rating: R (strong violence, some drug use and brief language).

Running time: 1:38.

Cast: Dwayne Johnson (Driver); Billy Bob Thornton (Cop); Oliver Jackson-Cohen (Killer); Carla Gugino (Cicero); Maggie Grace (Lily); Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Evangelist); Tom Berenger (Warden).

Credits: Directed by George Tillman Jr.; written by Tony Gayton and Joe Gayton; produced by Martin Shafer, Liz Glotzer, Tony Gayton and Robert Teitel. A CBS Films release.

 

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