Who needs good writing when you have fast cars and big crashes??

Rating: 6/10 (26 July 2001)

Depending on the age group you fall under, you may or may not like this movie. But then again, that's true of a lot of movies but this one seemed to have a very specific target audience and it seemed to be between the ages of 17 to 23 and predominately male. I fall outside of this age group but it doesn't mean a bad reviewit just means that it's not going to be a good review either. Well, it might. I guess you'll just have to read to the end of the review to find out. Typically movies aimed at this target audience tend to be high on the stunts and low on just about everything.
Fast and Furious is about cars. Fast cars to be specific. And not the type that belongs on the race track but the kind that gets you arrested for going a zillion miles an hour down a city street in the middle of the night. This movie is about a young man that enters the underground life of street racing. Something that happens in every city. But apparently this past time is rather cliquish and getting in with the `in-crowd' isn't always easy nor does everyone accept you. It's not that different than belonging to a gang it seems. Get in with one group and you're the enemy of another group, which means that you're going to have the typical `turf war' issues. You're also going to have your `boy meets sister of big bad brother' side story and all the other issues that go along with it. There's a bit of a twist but nothing that I haven't seen in other gang/drug related movies that have something to do with young people. In fact this movie reminded me a lot of `Point Break' except I enjoyed that movie.
If it sounds like I'm not really all that enthused about the plot line it's because I'm not. There was really nothing that was too terribly original about the storyline. In fact, if you look at the trailers, you'd think this movie was based on the video game `Need for Speed'. The colors used and the cars involved could have easily come out of that game and the characters? Definitely could have been taken out of a video game. The writing was full of clichés and the delivery of them wasn't overly well done. At some points I thought to myself `Did he actually say that?? That's so cheesy!' or `Please don't say that next line, please, please, please!' but they did. Not enough time was spent on developing the relationships we see. We're just kind of told about them but not in a way that really enlightens us, just that this relationship exists so accept it.
So far this review is sounding pretty negative isn't it? Well, I have to say that the stunts were kind of interesting. The car chase scenes (and there's a lot of them) were pretty well done and some of the scenes they do with the semi-trucks were interesting but not all that believable.

So you're wondering, is there anything worth seeing about this movie? Hmmm, maybe depending on if you fit that target group I was talking about. If you have a hot car and like to see some hot cars with neat toys and some street racing, then this movie's for you. Other than that, I wouldn't really see it. The dialogue alone would make you want to get pulled over for road rage.