There's a scene in the movie The Rundown where famed action-star-turned-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wishes upcoming action star Dwayne Johnson good luck. It was a sort of passing of the torch from the last great action star to the next. No longer "The Rock," Johnson took that torch and promptly did movies like Tooth Fairy. The trailer makes Faster look like a return to form for the budding action star, but it's not what you're expecting.
Faster involves three characters, all of whom are connected to a bank heist turned double-cross that resulted in the death of Johnson's brother. As the movie begins, we see Johnson get out of jail and make a B-line for those who killed his sibling. We also meet a rich boy turned hitman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), only looking for a challenge in life and finding one in his latest hit, and Billy Bob Thornton as a cop trying to hunt down a serial murderer before more are killed.
Don't let the action-packed trailer fool you: Faster isn't really a big action movie, and is better described as a suspense movie with guns, and lots and lots of shots of Dwayne Johnson looking stern. Instead of big action set pieces, Faster turns into a series of scenes involving either Johnson driving to his next hit, or the quick in and out hit itself, with very little else to engage the audience. The action scenes that are present seem off, with director George Tillman Jr. (Men of Honor) going with a shaky-cam and a barrage of quick cuts.
This article appears in Nov 18-24, 2010.