Fun, but tried too hard

Rating: 6/10 (6 March 2006)

There's one thing that's always bugged me about this movie: that it's not what everyone who hasn't seen it thinks it is. For whatever reason, there had to be a tacked-on crime story, the whole subplot with Johnny Tran (he should've had a separate movie, and it's a shame that the amazing motorcycle stuntwork is now completely forgotten), and lots of interesting but generally uncohesive exposition about Dominic Toretto. In fact, you could compare this movie to a "ricer", with lots of bits that look cool but don't add anything.
If you want action, you got it. The racing is always exciting (well, as exciting as going in a straight line can be), the trailer hijackings need to be seen to be believed, and of course, I loved the motorcycle chase at the end. But I wanted a movie about street racing. STREET RACING, not cops or crime families or vendettas or divided loyalties or love triangles or any of that meaningless junk. A good screenwriter could make a movie about racing work. As it is, we're left with a fairly generic action movie that's a notch above average.