begins well then careens downhill

Rating: Null/10 (19 February 2002)

In its early stages, `The Fast and the Furious' offers promise that it will become a kind of street-smart, urban version of `American Graffiti' for the new millennium. It is, alas, a promise that goes largely unfulfilled when the film decides to go the `Donnie Brasco' route instead (although this ain't no `Donnie Brasco'). Like `American Graffiti,' this movie peers into a culture centered largely around automobiles  although in this case it involves high-speed street racing rather than mere cruising. Unlike Lucas' classic, however, `The Fast and the Furious' betrays its milieu by incorporating a trite tale of an undercover cop (cherubic, squeaky-clean Paul Walker) sent in to infiltrate the cruisers led by Vin Diesel, who appear to be running an elaborate, but actually rather incredible and impracticable, truck hijacking business. Thus, we are left to endure the inevitable moral conflicts that arise when the cop falls in love with the leader's sister and he begins to feel `sympathy' for the man he is supposed to betray.
We could forgive the fact that the dialogue is incredibly inane and the characterizations nonexistent if the film had at least stayed true to its first 40 minutes of nonstop action. Director Rob Cohen brings a real style and feeling for visual composition to these early scenes, punctuated by incredible stunt work and lightning-paced editing. The film also captures the feel of urban street rhythms in its musical soundtrack (although you may feel somewhat assaulted by all the visual and aural over-stimulation if you happen to be 25 years of age or older). In fact, if `The Fast and the Furious' had stayed in this mode throughout, it might even have become an epochal film for the teens of its era. In this early part, the film's characters pose and strut and drip attitude in a way that becomes emblematic of the trendy youth culture of the time. Instead, the film becomes just another trite police melodrama straight off the film-factory assembly line.

That's really a shame because the stunt work is phenomenal throughout, and Vin Diesel conveys a kind of raw animal magnetism that bodes well for his future in action cinema. He has a way of commanding the audience's attention every time he makes an appearance on screen. The cars too are spectacular, although they are so overloaded with computer gizmos and jet propulsion devices that one begins to wonder if NASA itself didn't design and build them.
Had it been willing to forego the standard plot mechanics and been content to afford us a glimpse into the life of the street-racing culture, `The Fast and the Furious' might have ended up as a `classic' of youth action cinema. Instead, it becomes just another dumb movie with some really neat car chases.