simplify things just a bit

Rating: 9/10 (21 February 2002)

One word...FORMULA. This is Hollywood. Break it down and it is simply a western plot with cars races substituted for drawing guns, 18-wheelers for stagecoaches, and a whole lotta "this town ain't big enough for the two of us". Anyone expecting an original plot must be oblivious as to the state of American film. Accept it for what it is and be fortunate that it is lacking in pretensions. It is not titled, "leisurely-paced, intellectually stimulating plot with rice burners". It is FAST and it is FURIOUS, delivering what it promises.
The movie is founded in reality, whether the movie-speak comes across accurately or not; this culture exists across the US. Rent the DVD to read the article the script was conceived from and see more details about this particular group of people. The ability to take your mothers leftover civic and dump a few grand under the hood, resulting in power and freedom, unites many different races and cultural identities in the street racing world. Even within the one ?team? in this movie there are several different cultural groups identified including women, Latino, African-American, redneck, and WASP.
Rob Cohen has succeeded in creating a movie where the cars are given life. They are characters in the film along with the actors. And for those complaining of realism, a majority of the cars used in the movies are real cars raced by their owners who were extras in the movie, thus, one must conclude that this must be based in some sort of mechanical reality?But hey, that's just my take on it.