Dwayne Johnson (or 'Samoan Hulk' as Roman in Furious 6 rightfully christened him) is fast becoming my favorite actor with potential. He was able to pull off the concerned father willing to go the distance to save his son, quite admirably.
Which is not to say that the rest of the acting performances weren't as good. The screen time was allocated quite judiciously and the lesser known actors playing the families of the protagonists did quite well. There was even a conscious attempt to make John Mathews (Dwayne's character) as civvie as possible despite his rippling muscles. Well, he had his shirt on at all times. Susan Sarandon makes for a hot corrupt district attorney. Agent Cooper's (Barry Pepper) metal-head goatie did not come in the way of well-rendered restrained performance.
The failing of the movie was that it was not the tight plot that it could have been and the production quality was abysmal. There was a half-baked attempt to build an aura around the cartel lord and some of the twists in the narrative were confusing. For example, I did not understand why Daniel (Jon Bernthal) had to take out Malik's smalltime gang around the same time that the big cartel cat was about to be apprehended. It did seem like the movie had a hurried end considering the buildup till the second act. The visuals left a lot to be desired with mostly flat medium shots and not-so-gripping action.
I'm more than glad if this can be Dwayne Johnson's ticket to the mainstream.
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