Discriptive

Alan Collins WR 121 Professor Tony Russell Essay 2 1 August 2012 Faster Faster is an action thriller with plenty of blood, intense get-a-way driving, and violence. Director George Tillman Jr. focused on delivering a pure thriller that portrays a dark emotion of the human soul: revenge. While the movie may be exciting, it lacks a story that an audience can connect with. The movie seems to be so infatuated with giving the audience hard-core action that it has failed to give audiences a storyline to enjoy. “Faster” is a movie with a very simple storyline that feels predictable and unenjoyably due to bad acting and an emphasis towards giving an audience action. The movie follows three main characters simply known as “Driver” (Dwayne Johnson), “Cop” (Billy Bob Thornton), and “Killer”(Oliver Jackson-Cohen); no names are ever given. “Driver” has been in jail for 10 years for he got set up in a bank robbery. During his sentence, he begins a pursuit for vengeance. He intends to kill the men who set him up and killed his brother. After his release, he immediately begins his quest. “Cop” is a crooked, drug-addicted detective that has been assigned to find Driver and end his killing spree. After this case, “Cop” plans to retire and looks forward to cleaning up his life. “Killer” is an expert hit man and finds joy in the sport of killing, but is ready to settle down and start a family with his wife. He is hired to assassinate Driver and finds it a challenge that he becomes engulfed in. “Faster” is a very easy movie to watch and contains an easy plot to follow. The movie begins with Driver being released from jail and he immediately begins his quest for vengeance. He runs out of the jail and goes straight to his spruced up muscle car, finds a list of the men who set him up, and a gun. From this point, the movie follows “Drivers” guest. He finds each one of the listed men and effortlessly takes them out in several action packed scenes, usually ending in a gory headshot. Throughout the film, flashbacks from “Drivers” set-up during the bank robbery are shown to help illustrate why he is doing what he is doing. Robert Koehler, Film reviewer of L.A.Weekly, points out that “ it doesn’t get much more basic than 1+1+1=3, and that’s the formula in faster...” All the actors are never known by their names, but by profession. There are only three main characters in the movie, which makes it easy to follow. Although “Faster” may not be the most complex movie, it is easy to enjoy the fast driving and intense fights. From the start of the movie to the end of the movie, it is easy to predict all the scenes before they happen. The hit list is given right off the bat, so its easy to quest what the whole movie will be about: the “Driver” finishing his hit list. On his first hit, he walks into an office building and shoots a man in front of dozens of people. At this point, it is easy to tell that he will stop at nothing, for he has no fear of the consequences. He is constantly portrayed as an unbeatable enemy that everyone knows and fears. During the bank robbery set-up, Driver gets shot in the head from less than a foot away and survives. Throughout the whole movie, he is perceived as a superhuman for this. All of the action scenes are obviously one-sided, and it begins to become a pattern. It is clear he will not be dying and his goal is also apparent. James Berardinelli, author of Reelviews 1 and 2, notes, “The irony is obvious: because of it commitment to lukewarm drama and lengthy exposition, there are times when Faster drags.” “Faster” is missing any sort of originality and therefore loses the element of surprise. With a title like “Faster” and Dwayne Johnson on the front cover, it is apparent this movie is directed towards a certain audience who will enjoy watching intense fighting scenes and catchy camera angles, regardless of the story. There is almost no complexity to this movie and it lacks a message. The movie revolves around a man killing in the name of revenge and that is pretty much it. There is plenty of action but little storyline. Daniel Eagan, Hollywood reporter, points out that “Faster” is “evoking a time when action films were more grit than fluff.” Throughout the story there is little dialog, making the guns and cars the only things to find interest in and the story hard to connect to. Tillman left the dialog short so people would be more drawn towards the cinematography and intense action. “Faster” is missing a story for an audience and instead give them embellished fighting and killing scenarios. “Faster” has terrible structure to the story line. The movie begins with a man known nothing about. As the movie goes on, the viewer learns little more about the characters and never gets a real feel of what their relation is with one another. All three main characters have no given background or even a name. They are just actors assaulting one another in action packed scenes captured by fancy camera angles. Even a hardcore action fan would notice that “Faster” has a story with no true ending, and what feels like no true beginning. It is simply a sloppy idea with a lot of money put into it. Koehler agrees that “Faster is a movie distracted by itself, and struggles to find any particular tone or groove outside Driver’s man-on-a-mission single-mindedness.” Structurally the movie is a disaster; there is no background to connect the audience to the film and there seems to be no conclusion for an audience to grasp. As far as a moral for the movie, well, there is none. The actors Johnson and Jackson-Cohen are square and predictable due to poor acting. Muscle bound Johnson does not seem to act in this movie. He has little dialog and never shows any emotions. Stephen Holden, author for NY Times film reviews agrees that Johnson “doesn’t exactly act…” He is more of a model. He just poses for the shot rather than actually acting at more than a 4 second interval. “Killer” is the worst; he has much more dialog and terrible acting. Whenever “Killer” is around, he gives out a feel that he is in front of screen acting especially in the way he talks. He sounds as if he is trying to force a style of acting and it comes across feeling very fake. Altogether the story is un-relatable and unbelievable to most audiences. Even an action-loving crowd would have a hard time putting themselves in a similar circumstance. “Driver” gets shot in the head with a handgun and miraculously survived. Then after 10 years in jail, he immediately runs down his killers and never stops. Half way through the movie he gets shot in the neck and just drives away. “Driver” also never does anything normal humans do: he never eats, sleeps, feels pain, feels emotion, or dies. By the end of the movie he has taken three bullets above the shoulders and is somehow still alive. He seems like a superman making the movie hard to relate to as well as hard to believe it. “Killer” is also a hard character to relate to for many reasons. He is a millionaire that drives a supercar around while only accepting a dollar for each hit. He was born unable to walk and somehow formed his body into an athletic masterpiece, accomplishing yoga poses that have never been preformed in real life. It seems very unrealistic and very hard to find any connection with either character. In “Faster”, experienced actors could not save the film. “Faster” is an un-relatable story that most will find to be an unappealing collaboration of dark action scenes. All round “Faster” is a terrible attempt of an action thriller. It lacks all the components needed for a good story and the structure is not there. Although the film may have some impressive action scenes, it repeats itself over again while leaving the audience without a moral. Director Tillman did not seem to think of the audience in this story and got lost in the intensity of the action. He left out a beginning and an end to direct his story. To save some time, find another movie because it does not get much more pointless that “Faster.” Works Cited Berardinelli, James. Rev. of Faster, dir. George Tillman Jr. rottentomatoes.com. rottentomatoes.com, 2010. Web 26 July 2012 Eagan, Daniel. Rev. of Faster, dir. George Tillman Jr. rottentomatoes.com. rottontomatoes.com, 2010 Web. 26 July 2012 Faster. Dir. George Tillman Jr. Perf. Dwayne Johnson, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, and Billy Bob Thornton. CBS, 2010. Film. Holden, Stephen. Rev. of Faster, dir. George Tillman Jr. rottentomatoes.com. rottentomatoes.com, 2010 Web. 26 July 2012 Koehler, Robert. Rev. of Faster, dir. George Tillman Jr. rottenntomatoes.com. rottentomatoes.com, 2010. Web. 26 July 2012