Shallow as hell, but fun to watch

Rating: 8/10 (19 November 2006)

If you watch The Fast and the Furious for the script and the acting, you will be disappointed. This movie has no intention of being a Michael Mann-like philosophical action movie. It's just a silly ride that will entertain for a couple of hours without any real emotional impact on the viewer. I knew this right from the start, which is why I enjoyed The Fast and the Furious.
Actually, I'm being a bit unfair, since there is one respectable performance in the film: Vin Diesel's career-making portrayal of Dominic Toretto, who is the undisputed king of L.A.'s illegal street racing. That is, until a cocky guy named Brian (Paul Walker) shows up to challenge him. Naturally, Dom wins, but in the meantime he's made friends with the newcomer, who saves his life when the cops show up.
As we learn soon after-wards, though, it's all a set-up: Brian is a cop himself, going undercover to find out whether Dom is involved in a series of truck hijackings.
In the hands of a better director, the movie could have been an interesting character study, with the addition of a few mandatory action sequences. Rob Cohen, however, treats the script like an excuse to stage a bunch of visually spectacular race scenes. Those scenes, as well as Diesel's charismatic presence, make The Fast and the Furious fun enough to watch, but not good enough to remember. In fact, there aren't enough elements to justify the film's transformation into a franchise. But focusing on these aspects is pointless: just take the movie for what it is (a good-looking, if shallow summer blockbuster) and enjoy it. Otherwise, watch something better.
7,5/10