Faster

[WalterPeck]

This was what came through from my rental list this week. Had heard it was a decent, post-pub old-school revenger.

Erm, that's a bit generous.

I know complaining that an action film starring The Rock is stupid is a bit like ordering a Quattro Formaggi and moaning that it's a bit cheesy, but Lordy me is Faster dumb.

It's very much like watching someone else play a video game. This is cool at times, like the fact that characters don't have names, just occupations, which are introduced in gaudy in-film titles. At others it's just repetitive though, as you essentially get exposition delivered through what amount to cut scenes that tie together the parts where Dwayne Johnson drives from place to place shooting people in the head, while Billy Bob Thornton's cop and Oliver Jackson-Cohen's hitman pursue him.

It's fun at times - Thornton's floppy, 70s coke-addict haircut steals the film. Cohen-Jackson's character is the most interesting, but the film itself loses interest in him pretty quickly. His English accent seems oddly fake, despite him actually being English.

You see the twist coming from a mile away and the ending is head-slappingly, insultingly stupid. Overall, even as a switch-your-brain off action film, there are plenty of better efforts out there, even if you're smashed.

Wanted to like it. Didn't.

Anyone enjoy it? Am I being too harsh?