Fast Cars + Fast Women + Hot Music = Hit Summer Movie

Rating: Null/10 (28 July 2001)

"The Fast and the Furious" follows the time-honoured and time-worn formula in order to produce a film feature that will be swallowed whole by the 18-25 year-old set. The director, Rob Cohen (Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story) did not intend to bring to the screen his vision of a moral tale. There is no deep thought required to digest this morsel of celluloid. It can be compared to a 15-second amusement park ride that thrills the audience for the time occupied, but leaves them empty after the ride is over. In short, this is a good summer movie that will never see the light of the prestigious film awards.
The plot involves an undercover police officer who must insert himself into a street-racing "team" in order to shut down the truck hijacking that is frequently happening on the Los Angeles freeway system.
The cars are the products of youth that are totally enamoured with the automobile, from supped-up Honda Civics to Toyota Supras enhanced with nitrous oxide. These vehicles are a young man's dream.
The women of the story are Michelle Rodriguez (Girl Fight) and Jordana Brewster (The Faculty). These two "girls" portray the sweet, young, exotic playmates of the male leads in the movie. There is no time to develop their characters and their presence in the movie is generally wasted. The male leads are Vin Diesel (Pitch Black) and pretty boy, Paul Walker (The Skulls and Varsity Blues). Diesel, he of the mysterious ethnic origin shows promise as an up-and-coming thespian. However, Walker provides a performance that can easily be forgotten or be replaced.

Finally, the music is the best part of the movie. It is a superb sampling of the latest popular music, with DMX to Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit. This creative aspect is the most solid part of "The Fast and the Furious". It moves the scenes along in the movie and transforms it into one long music video.
In conclusion, "The Fast and the Furious" has been churned out by Harvard graduate, Rob Cohen as a very watchable action movie. He is developing a good reputation as a competent director of the action genre of films. My suggestion, see the movie in the theatres, but buy the movie soundtrack instead of the VCR/DVD when it is released in a few months.