Faster

Action movie Faster lets Dwayne Johnson show off his hard-man skills.

Dwayne Johnson stars as the gun-toting hard man in faster. Courtesy CBS Films, Inc

Faster Director: George Tillman, Jr
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton
*** 

The man once known as The Rock, Dwayne Johnson, takes off his tooth fairy wings and mans up in this big action movie from George Tillman, Jr, the director of Notorious. Johnson plays James Cullen, a man released from prison a decade after being framed for a botched robbery where his brother was killed. Consumed with a desire for vengeance, he compiles a list of victims and hits the road seeking satisfaction. On his tail is veteran policeman "Cop" (Billy Bob Thornton) and a young hitman hired by the murderers to stop Cullen before he completes his list. It's a genuinely interesting prospect to see Johnson in full "action mode", after he has spent so long mugging it up in family fare including Tooth Fairy and The Gameplan. Some may argue he's not taken on anything this serious before, and he is every bit the gun-toting, steel-glaring hard man his fans wish him to be. Thornton turns up to add some class to proceedings and, despite a ridiculous and rather distracting hairpiece, he does his job well. In the end, Faster is not as hard-hitting as the trailer promises, but has enough grunt and impressive set pieces to send audiences home feeling there's potential in the former wrestler as the successor to the old action guard of Schwarzenegger and company.

For show times, see:www.grandcinemas.com, www.cineroyal.ae, www.reelcinemas.ae, www.cinestarcinemas.com