Faster (2010) - Tillman Jr., the Gayton brothers and Johnson sculpt a fantastic action movie

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5 Film Excess nominations:

Best Screenplay: Joe Gayton, Tony Gayton (lost to Christopher Nolan for Inception)
Best Cinematography: Michael Grady (lost to Wally Phister for Inception)
Best Sound (lost to Insidious) 
Best Editing (lost to Somewhere) 
Best Practical Effects (lost to Inception)

+ Best Car Movie of the Year

Dwayne Johnson's impressive front adorns this poster for George Tillman Jr.'s Faster

After ten years behind bars, a vengeful bank robbery driver gets released, carrying with him a list of his accursed enemies. But a contract killer is on his heels. - And just how much vengeance is justifiable?

Faster, written by brothers Tony and Joe Gayton (The Novice (2014), TV movie) and directed by great Wisconsinite filmmaker George Tillman Jr. (The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete (2013)) is a brilliant, refreshing, old school action movie. It has an original storyline and exciting characters that feel new and avoid the stereotypical as well as cool but still relatively restrained dialog. Faster has smart twists and carries a moral jacket on itself, SPOILER which works and culminates in a fine desert-set scene with the film's terrific star Dwayne Johnson (Get Smart (2008)) and a priest played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005)) going toe-to-toe. This film is my personal favorite with Johnson.
Faster is beautifully shot, by Michael Grady (The Jolly Man (2001)), efficiently produced, - getting a lot out of its relatively low budget, - and it has a cool score by Clint Mansell (Black Swan (2010)). It's got exciting cars and a cast to suit it all, featuring also the great Carla Gugino (The Unborn (2009)) and Billy Bob Thornton (Dead Man (1995)). Don't miss it.

Related posts:

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Here's an interview promo video for the movie

Cost: 24 mil. $
Box office: 35.6 mil. $
= Big flop
[Faster was released November 24 and runs 98 minutes. Salma Hayek dropped out a week prior to filming due to "scheduling conflicts" and was replaced by Gugino. Filming took place from February - April in in LA and other places in California. The film opened #7 to an 8.5 mil. $ opening weekend in North America, where it grossed 23.2 mil. $ (65.2 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 1.4 mil. $ (3.9 %) and Malaysia with 1.2 mil. $ (3.4 %). Faster is rotten at 43 % with a 4.9 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Faster?

Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011) - Waters and Carrey's great family movie

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1 Time Film Excess Nominee:


Best Score: Rolfe Kent (lost to Cliff Martinez for Drive)

Jim Carrey's mug and 6 cutesy penguins on the poster for Mark Waters' Mr. Popper's Penguins

QUICK REVIEW:

When Tom Popper was a boy, his father neglected him from all the different corners of the world. Now Popper is close to repeating the flaw in his own divorced family, as his father dies and sends his son one last souvenir: 6 penguins.

I honestly thought Mr. Popper's Penguins looked a little stupid, and so I went to see it with low expectations. - Which the film completely put to shame!
Jim Carrey (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)) is in great form, wildly enthusiastic and energetic; Madeline Carroll (Machine Gun Preacher (2011)) and Maxwell Perry Cotten (Elysium (2013)) are good as the children; Carla Gugino (Faster (2010)), Philip Baker Hall (Zodiac (2007)), Dominic Chianese (The Sopranos (1999-07)) and, in a funny part, Angela Lansbury (Blue Hawaii (1961)) complete the fine ensemble.
Nearly the whole film plays with a magnificent 78 piece orchestra score by Rolfe Kent (Up in the Air (2009)). Mr. Popper's Penguins is a positive, touching and contemporary story about making the right priorities and the importance of family. Additionally, it is a fun New York movie with scenes in the Guggenheim and with villains from the New York Zoo (!).
The script is written by Sean Anders and John Morris (We're the Millers (2013), both) and Jared Stern (The Internship (2013)), based on the 1938 children's book of the same name by Richard and Florence Atwater. Mark Waters (Mean Girls (2004)) has directed the film.

Related posts:

Mark Waters: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
Mean Girls (2004) - Lohan, Waters and Fey's high school satire triumph

If you're a Jim Carrey fan, you shouldn't miss this family movie treat! Watch the trailer here

Cost: 55 mil. $
Box office: 187.3 mil. $
= Box office success
[The film got a lukewarm reception in the US by audiences and critics alike; it opened #3, behind Green Lantern and Super 8 (both lesser films, quality-wise) and grossed 68.2 mil. $ (36 % of the total gross) in the US. But Carrey's name and the inclusion of the cute penguins rescued the great film on the global stage.]

What do you think of Mr. Popper's Penguins?