Faster

I don’t know if I’ve admitted this before on this blog (or actually even out loud, ever?) but I really love Dwayne Johnson. For obvious reasons, generally – plus, in my opinion, it’s hard to diss a man who made his way in the world clad primarily in hotpants. But I also love him because he comes across as a kind of charming everyman. OK, an everyman with outrageous biceps, but still…. he seems nice. So, I’m partial to a bit of Dwayne, which is how I came across the movie Faster.

Here, our Dwayne plays a parolee who comes out of prison running, literally, and doesn’t look back. He also undertakes a swift and bloody revenge spree on the people who killed his brother and caused him to be incarcerated in the first place. A couple of cops are on his tail – delicious Carla Gugino, and curmudgeonly, drug-addicted, retiring-age Billy Bob Thornton. Dwayne is also being tracked by some whippety British Jake Gyllenhaal look-alike assassin, in a sub-plot that’s disjointed, and a bit unnecessary. But otherwise it all hangs together well enough, and I quite enjoyed it – even though Dwayne’s character is clearly completely bat-shit from start to finish.

Faster filmed in Los Angeles and also lovely Pasadena; one of the first encounters between buff Dwayne and scrawny man-turkey Billybobbalina takes place at the St. Luke’s Medical Center at 2632 Washington Boulevard, Pasadena.