Did you people see the same film I saw?

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Enjoy rewatching this movie every year or so. Great acting, great directing, great score, great characters, great cinematography, great settings, great storytelling. Should be reviewed higher. This movie is smarter than it looks (not smart per se, but smarter than it looks).

Faster is an action film with an eerie aura and a darkly unnerving bite to it. Don't get me wrong, it's action through and through, a genre effort right to its marrow. And yet, there's something oddly esoteric about it, an obvious extra effort put in by the filmmakers, namely first time action director George Tillman, to give every character an off kilter, bizarre cadence to ensure we won't forget them. There's clichés, no doubt, but they're eclipsed by the strange, full moon weirdness of the rogues running about the film's story. Dwayne Johnson fires up a furious protagonist in his first action role after a long and ridiculous stint in insufferable family comedies. He plays a quiet, hulking dude known only as Driver, reluctantly released from prison by a watchful Warden (Tom Berenger). Upon exiting the gate, he runs. And runs. And runs. He arrives at a small town junkyard where he tears a tarp of a vintage Chevelle which seems to be left there for him like a care package. From there he launches a bloody crusade of revenge that knows neither mercy nor discretion, and whose reasons we are only slowly allowed to know. He's a one man wrecking ball, the murders piling up before we really have any idea what this guy is about. He's been greatly wronged in the past, the culprits of which should all be running scared, as he comes looking for them one by one and with the juggernaut pace of a boulder tumbling down a mountain. Pretty soon there's two cops on his trail, intrepid Cicero (Carla Gugino) and mopey sleazeball 'Cop' (Billy Bob Thornton), a dilapidated piece of work who mainlines heroin and clearly has a murky past. Soon there's one hell of a hit-man (Oliver Jackson Cohen) skulking around looking for Driver, an extreme sports enthusiast who has 'beaten yoga' and is avidly looking for the next big thrill. Johnson jumps from one ultra violent encounter to the next with all the corrosive ferocity of the grim reaper, tallying up the corpses until we're all but sure he's an inhuman elimination machine. Then.. the film curveballs us and throws a glint of humanity into the mix with some late third act emotion that only goes to show the filmmakers set out with more than a one track mind. Driver has been unspeakably betrayed, and his rampage is undeniably justified, but there's a complexity to his quest that he didn't see coming, and neither did those of us who expected pure action without a moral conundrum in sight. I say good on it for grasping something besides the thrills. A terrific cast populates the almost Oliver Stone - esque proceedings, including Maggie Grace, Moon Bloodgood, Mike Epps, Jennifer Carpenter (always superb), Matt Gerald, Xander Berkeley, Buzz Belmondo, Courtney Gains and more. It's got the depth of a well written graphic novel and a level of thought out characterization that heaps of stale action entries wish they possessed.

This was a refreshing change of roles for Dwayne Johnson, and I will actually go as far as saying that a role like the one in "Faster" is what he is best suited for.While the movie itself is a no-brainer, it is actually good entertainment. The movie's storyline is so simple that every can keep up with what is going on, but it still does manage to throw a twist towards the end. Driver is released from prison and has one thing on his mind only; to revenge his dead brother by taking the lives of those responsible.As I started out with mentioning, Dwayne Johnson was actually really good in this role and delivered quite well. I don't normally think much of the acting of Billy Bob Thornton, but he was great in this movie."Faster" is an action-packed ride with cars, guns, knives and a classic cat-and-mouse chase. It is well-worth spending an hour and a half on watching. Oh, and Dwayne Johnson shows that he doesn't need Vin Diesel to pull off a car movie. You know what you will get with a movie of this caliber, and it does deliver where it counts.

Revenge thrillers are my favorite type of action film. They are intense, fast pace, and have you rooting for the bad guy, who may not be so bad after all. My favorite revenge thriller is Payback with Mel Gibson, but Faster may be a close second. The Rock stars in a role that is absolutely perfect for him. The unnamed man was set-up for a crime his brother committed, a crime, that saw his partners turn on him and kill him. Now after nearly a decade in jail, The Rock is out and seeking revenge. With his size, intimidation, and weird eye brows, The Rock finds out who his brother was working with and goes on the hunt. Realizing this, the man who set everything up, hires a hit-man to stop him, and the chase is on. I do believe that wrestlers can be great action stars, but The Rock never really did anything for me until now. This cold, calculating man, out for revenge is by far better than any character he's ever played. If The Rock was alone in this film, it wouldn't have been as great as it was. He is paired with Billy Bob Thornton, playing a washed up, alcoholic cop, who is days away from retirement. He really doesn't need or want this case, but winds up stuck in the middle with some pretty funny moments. Thornton is one of those guys who is good in anything and always brings his unique and dry brand of humor to every role. The pairing of the two, in an intense, fast paced, story make this film an absolutely must see movie that shouldn't be missed.