Faster

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, Carla Gugino
Directed by: George Tillman Jr. (“Notorious”)
Written by: Tony Gayton (“Murder by Numbers”) and Joe Gayton (“Bulletproof”)

While we’re ecstatic Dwayne Johnson seems to have ditched embarrassing kiddie fare like “Tooth Fairy,” “The Game Plan,” and “Race to Witch Mountain” by starring in “Faster,” his stock isn’t much higher since the ultra-violent action flick is without personality.

It’s not entirely Johnson’s fault. As “Driver,” an ex-convict out for revenge for the death of his brother, the ex-WWE star proves he still has everything it would take for him to be the next Arnold Schwarzenegger. It’s actually kind of surprising that he’s not closer to that distinction yet since he’s been out of the wrestling ring for six years. It’s not charisma, attitude, or primal instinct Johnson is lacking. High-quality scripts keep dodging him for some reason.

That’s where screenwriters Tony and Joe Gayton come in with “Faster,” a film with all the violence one could want, but without a true sense of adventure. In the film, “Driver” does his share of point-blank shooting and engine revving, but it all feels very unoriginal in a genre that usually needs a distinctive touch to stand out. Director Quentin Tarantino has recently mastered it with films like “Kill Bill” and “Inglourious Basterds.” It doesn’t help that Johnson has already starred in “Walking Tall,” another less-than-stellar entry into the revenge genre. Johnson carries a small hand cannon in this one and not a two-by-four, but it feels all the same nonetheless.

Aside from Johnson’s no-nonsense attitude, the Gaytons fail to give any depth to the characters that are thrown in “Driver’s” way. Billy Bob Thornton plays “Cop,” a drug-addicted officer who never comes off as an actual threat. Then there is a character identified as “Killer” (Oliver Jackson Cohen), a slick assassin who has absolutely no reason to even exist. Actually, all the secondary storylines are weak and uninteresting, which puts all the pressure on Johnson to maneuver the film past all the pointless junk.

“Faster” is well shot, but there’s simply not enough material here to create a memorable vengeance movie. When the twists and turns start happening, it’s far too late to save face. Most of them have been blown off anyway.

The Tooth Fairy

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Ashley Judd, Julie Andrews
Directed by: Michael Lembeck (“The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause”)
Written by: Lowell Ganz (“Fever Pitch”), Babaloo Mandel (“Fever Pitch”), Joshua Sternin (“Surviving Christmas”), Jeffrey Ventimilia (“Surviving Christmas”), Randi Mayem Singer (“Mrs. Doubtfire”)

There was a time when Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson first retired from his wrestling career when it was possible to see the former grappler become a big action star. With roles in kid-friendly puff pieces like “The Tooth Fairy,” however, someone should really try and talk the muscle-head actor into climbing back into the ring before it’s too late. In this script-by-committee attempt here, Johnson is following the movie career of another wrestler-turned-actor, Hulk Hogan. Hogan is an icon in the squared circle, but there’s only so far one can go with “Santa with Muscles” on your resume. Take note, Rock.

Planet 51

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Justin Long, Jessica Biel
Directed by: Jorge Blanco (debut), Javier Abad (debut), Marcos Martinez (debut)
Written by: Joe Stillman (“Shrek”)

There’s literally been an alien invasion this year at the movies. From the entertaining extraterrestrials of “Star Trek” and “District 9” to the less than stellar offerings of the animated “Aliens in the Attic” and the thriller “The Fourth Kind,” life forms from galaxies beyond have taken over the cinema.

With the new animated film “Planet 51,” audiences are bound to go into alien overload. The excess of little green people isn’t the problem, however. Instead, it’s Oscar-nominated screenwriter Joe Stillman (“Shrek”) who doesn’t know when to let up on other sci-fi references. It makes another alien encounter feel like a worn-out welcome.

Humans and aliens trade roles in “Planet 51” when astronaut Chuck Baker (Dwayne Johnson) lands on a planet inhabited by anatomically incorrect creatures living in what is reminiscent of small-town America in the 1950s. As much as Chuck is scared of them, he is actually the one that has “invaded” their planet. With a much-anticipated movie about alien invasions about to hit theaters, the aliens go into full panic mode when they find out something from another world has made contact with them.

Desperate to get back to his abandoned spacecraft, which he parks in the middle of a suburban alien neighborhood, Chuck puts all his trust in Lem (Justin Long), a typical high school dweeb and aspiring astronomer who can never muster up enough courage to ask the alien of his dreams Neera (Jessica Biel) out on a date. Lem takes on the responsibility of getting Chuck safely back to his ship before General Grawl (Gary Oldman) and his army captures him. There’s also a mad scientist, Professor Kipple (John Cleese), who wants to dissect his brain.

While most of the slapstick humor will sit well with younger kids, “Planet 51” is far too imitative to give it a pass. Sure, it’s always fun to see a couple of really nifty movie references sprinkled into the story at just the right times, but when Stillman delivers them in droves, it’s hard to tell where his admiration for the sci-fi genre ends and unoriginality begins. From “E.T.” to “Alien” to “Star Wars,” no sci-fi film of the last 30 years is left unturned. Even a joke about the 1983 Oscar-winning film “The Right Stuff” gets overused so much, it becomes trite and obvious.

In a year where animated films are just as abundant as alien ones, “Planet 51” floats aimlessly in the cinematic solar system. It might be harmless enough for the most nonjudgmental of tikes, but everyone else will only be reminded of movies that have pushed the genre to the outer limits instead of simply rehashing the past.

Race to Witch Mountain

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, AnnaSophia Robb, Alexander Ludwig
Directed by: Andy Fickman (“The Game Plan”)
Written by: Matt Lopez (“Bedtime Stories”) and Mark Bomback (“Godsend”)

If former WWE entertainer the Rock, er, Dwayne Johnson is really serious about becoming an accomplished actor now that his wrestling career is behind him, he needs to quickly turn around because he’s already taken a few steps in the wrong direction.

After family-friendly, safe, and overall meaningless fare like “Gridiron Gang,” “The Game Plan,” and “Get Smart,” Johnson has decided to stick with the mind-numbing screenplays, this time with “Race to Witch Mountain,” a reimagining of the 1975 Disney movie “Escape to Witch Mountain” adapted from the 1968 book by Alexander Key.

In the film Johnson plays Jack Bruno (you won’t forget his name since it is annoyingly repeated throughout the film), a Las Vegas taxi cab driver who is a former muscle head for a group of mobsters. Now working as a cabbie, Jack (Bruno, that is) spends his days picking up passengers and trying to avoid his former colleagues who he owes money.

A big payday comes when Jack (Bruno, that is) picks up Sara (AnnaSophia Robb) and Seth (Alexander Ludwig), a couple of teenagers with a wad full of cash and an unspecific destination. Jack (Bruno, that is) has no idea, however, that his most recent customers are aliens from another planet who have crash-landed on Earth.

With clueless investigators from the U.S. Department of Defense on their trail, as well as an assassin who has been sent to kill them, Sara and Seth are on a mission to find their confiscated spacecraft and save the planet from total annihilation. Actress Carla Gugino is an afterthought as Dr. Alex Friedman, an expert in all things geeky, who is reeled along for the dull sci-fi ride.

There only so many tough-yet-sensitive guy roles any actor can accept and Johnson has definitely reached his limit. It’s too bad he plays a hockey player-turned-tooth fairy (seriously) in his next movie. Donning a tutu is a surefire way to lead him to the same ranks Hulk Hogan found himself in with “Mr. Mom” or Arnold Schwarzenegger with “Jingle All the Way.” And from that point, there’s really no turning back.

Get Smart

Starring: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson
Directed by: Peter Segal (“The Longest Yard”)
Written by: Tom J. Astle (“Failure to Launch”) and Matt Ember (“Failure to Launch”)

Mel Brooks is an acquired taste, even more so in 2008.

Coming into the production of the film version of “Get Smart” as an advisor with fellow TV series writer Buck Henry, the duo attempt to inject some of the old show’s spirit into only the second feature of Tom Astle and Matt Ember’s screenwriting career.

While the dryness and silliness are there for the most part, some of the jokes sink fast on the big screen as people think back and wonder if “Blazing Saddles” is really as funny as every one says it is.

Brooks is a comedy auteur, and well he should be. No one was making films like “Young Frankenstein” and “Spaceballs” during their time and his enthusiasm for emulating peculiar characters in his own way was both creative and absurd. But now, the comedy feels worn out. It’s proved so in 2005’s “The Producers,” when the film wasn’t as well-received as the Broadway show or the 1968 film of the same name directed and written by Brooks.

In “Get Smart,” Brooks’ characters are revived for an adventure in the 21st century after the original show ended 38 years ago. Like other TV shows of that era that have also been updated for a new generation (“The Beverly Hillbillies,” “Bewitched,” “I Spy”), “Get Smart” has a rough time translating over.

Although cast well (Steve Carell is the perfect to replace Don Adams as secret agent Maxwell Smart), the script falters as it plays out more like an episode of “Mr. Bean” than a bumbling “James Bond.” It’s a nicely constructed cast with Anne Hathaway taking Barbara Feldon’s role as Agent 99 and an addition of Agent 23 played by the always suave Dwayne Johnson.

For something filled with so much deadpan humor, “Get Smart” gets more laughs than the reimagining of Steve Martin’s new “Pink Panther” shtick, but only gets as far as the dry wit takes it. In this case, slapstick and action sequences get most of the screen time and in turn ruins what the original show was all about.

Dwayne Johnson – Get Smart

“If you smell what Dwayne Johnson is cookin’?”

The famous wrestling catchphrase may not have the same ring to it as when you replace Johnson’s birth name with his nickname The Rock, which he acquire while grappling in the World Wrestling Entertainment for eight years, but now the former WWE champion is a different man who wants a different image.

Focused on his acting career, Johnson hasn’t been in the ring since 2004. Not only has he lost the nickname, he’s also shed a few pounds of muscle to be considered for roles that don’t pigeonhole him as the go-to-guy for all things action-packed.

He starts this new transformation as a secret agent in “Get Smart,” a remake of the 1960s TV show, which stars Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway. During a phone interview, Johnson talked about shedding his wrestling skin and what it was like locking lips with Carell in the movie.

We’ve seen the evolution of your name from The Rock to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and now to simply Dwayne Johnson. How does it feel to finally let go of the wrestling persona?

The truth is I was just hoping there was a smart, easy way to make the transition happen. But people still call me Rock, people call me Dwayne. It’s not a big deal with me. It’s just a matter of being billed as Dwayne Johnson now.

You want to be viewed as a serious actor now. How do you prove to studios that the action genre isn’t all you can do?

You avoid it by doing your best to be diverse as possible. When I first got into the acting business, the only material I was getting was action material and I understood that. I was just hoping eventually I was going to get the opportunity branch out into different genres. It always comes down to material.

So, comedies are your genre of choice right now?

You know, we found some pretty good success with “The Game Plan” in the family comedy genre. Hopefully, we’ll find some with “Get Smart” in the action comedy genre. There are a lot of different chains in the compound that I can work with. When you step up to the plate, you always want to swing for the fences and want to hit a homerun but a lot of times it doesn’t happen that way.

As Agent 23 in “Get Smart” you have no reference point to look back to from the 60s TV show like everyone else. How do you create a character from scratch and fit him into what is already there?

It’s a fun challenge. I think there is a great benefit in starting a character from scratch. My main goal was for Agent 23 to fit nicely into the ensemble that worked so well in the TV show. To work with a titan like Alan Arkin and then Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway, they made it really easy to do.

Any advice for Steve Carell, since you’ve been a lead action star before and this is his first outing?

(Laughing) The advice I gave to Steve was don’t punch me in the face. All jokes aside, Steve is a committed actor and a committed actor can pretty much do anything. He was right on the money. I also give credit to Anne Hathaway who was a real trooper and got down and dirty everyday.

And Steve Carell as a kisser? Sensual or sloppy?

(Laughing) Very sensual with a hint of warm chocolate brownies.

I know you compete with him for Anne Hathaway’s attention in the movie, but in real life who do you think gets the girl at the club, Dwayne Johnson or Steve Carell?

(Laughing) Uh, hands down Steve Carell because he gets them all very drunk and tells them very bad jokes.

At the end of March you were given the honor to induct your father and grandfather into the WWE Hall of Fame. Talk to me about that experience.

It signified years of struggle and success and failure in both of their careers. For me personally, it was a public way that I could honor them and thank them for everything that they did for me. I’m very proud of my father and grandfather’s accomplishments in professional wrestling. I was an honor that my mother was there and that my grandmother was there with her history in professional wrestling and it was an honor to stand next to my dad as he gave his induction speech, which was fantastic.