I thought The Rock had abandoned us for Disney movies until I went to an early screening of Faster hosted by our local Rock station.

I’ve always wanted to like Dwayne Johnson as an actor. He was so entertaining when he was The Rock, why can’t his movies be just as entertaining? Unfortunately his best received films are the more family oriented ones and watching an ex-wrestler who used to talk about his love for pie and “laying the smack down” seems a bit bittersweet. Films like Faster are what Johnson should be sticking to, but it doesn’t live up to its potential and results in another flat action film.

Wasted potential is the perfect way to describe Faster. Dwayne Johnson spends more time walking around looking really angry than he does revenging his brother’s death or actually saying anything at all. Billy Bob Thornton doesn’t do much of anything either as his character struggles between being a drug addict who doesn’t amount to anything to a police officer who’s about to retire and get full benefits who is also trying to get his family back together again. He spends most of his screen time drowning in his depressing life. Then there’s Dexter’s Jennifer Carpenter who seems to be brought into the film to do nothing more than show up, cry a little, and say a few lines of nonsense. Nothing the actors did really helped drive the story forward.

The cinematography fluctuated between being interesting and being incredibly annoying. Right when something like the way the camera was placed while the driver was driving or something as simple as reloading a gun was done in a way that seemed original to catch your attention, the film would turn around and throw shaky camera techniques at you for no reason or the scenes that caught your eye would be too brief to really make up for the mediocrity of the rest of the film. The most interesting aspect lies within the final minutes and relates to the hired killer going after the driver. That concept alone that’s about the length of a one minute conversation is better than Faster as a whole.

Dwayne Johnson seems to have better luck with family films, but I think his fans would rather see him in R-rated action films since his physique and film presence fit that genre best. If he could find a film that was like Faster with a meatier role that gave him more lines and had better writing, it’d probably be a lot more satisfying. The kills in Faster should have been the highlight since the film revolved around the driver gaining revenge for his brother, but they fell short. Everything about Faster did. I was completely expecting Johnson to either turn himself over to the authorities or take his own life to be with his brother at the end of the film. The driver received the revenge he so desperately sought and did it in a nonchalant, hot-shot vigilante kind of way to let everyone know it was him doing it. Yet police can’t seem to keep up with him and he just kind of drives off into the sunset at the end. It felt like Faster was left open ended for nothing more than sequel purposes alone, which is the weakest form of a cop out for a movie ending. Coincidentally, a film called Faster managed to feel twice as long as its 98 minute duration.

In the end, Faster contains elements from both Gone in Sixty Seconds and Taxi Driver, which should result in an excellent film. Instead we’re left with an action film that uses these elements at face value; it contains the fast cars and intense chases of Gone in Sixty Seconds with the uneasy and unpredictable shootouts that are reminiscent of Taxi Driver but Faster lacks the depth, star power, enjoyment factor, strong cast, or lasting value these two films still have today. If you plan on seeing this film, you better be sure because that’s a long dark road you’re headed down (sorry, couldn’t resist) and that road is nothing more than a pointless detour from greater things.