"The Rock" returns to action in 'Faster'

REVIEW

While 'Faster', the new action film by Dwayne Johnson (aka "The Rock"), is both fast and furious, it should not be confused with one of the 'Fast and the Furious' movies. It keeps a good 'Speed', accelerates with 'Torque', as if propelled by 'Crank', all without the benefit of being 'Armored'. Let's just hope there isn't a 'Crash'.

Films of revved-up adrenaline have become commonplace. They're like movies on steroids, and with some of the same side-effects: nausea, stunted growth and probably some liver damage.

'Faster' begins with Johnson's character being released in a seething rage from a 10-year prison sentence, and immediately sprinting from the remote facility. He's racing for vengeance, and that means he won't wait for the bus.

The movie is in such a hurry that it doesn't bother to slow down for proper names, instead referring to its main characters as archetypes: Johnson is "Driver", Billy Bob Thornton is "Cop" and newcomer Oliver Jackson-Cohen is "Killer".

Driver is out of prison not an hour before he shoots a man in the head, in broad daylight. His rage, we learn, comes from the incident that preceded his jail term.

After joining his brother's crew for a bank heist as the driver, the crew is ambushed by another, who kills everyone. Driver only survives miraculously, earning him a fearsome reputation as a "ghost". Now, he's got a revenge list of people to kill, which he crosses off one-by-one like completed errands.