Weak story, but heart stopping action

Rating: 7/10 (4 January 2002)

This film examines the street racing subculture and provides ample thrills for the 25 and under set. Based on the box office numbers this film threw up, every teenager in the U.S. must have seen it at least twice, since it doesn't have much appeal outside that demographic.
The screenplay pretends to be a detective story about an undercover cop Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) who infiltrates the street racing scene to try to find a group thieves that has been hijacking tractor trailers and stealing the cargo. Make no mistake about it. This is not a detective story. This is a racing story replete with fast, NOS guzzling street machines, horsed up to burn rubber and detailed to attract babes. Fasten your seatbelt for a screaming ride to testosterone city.
The script panders shamelessly to post pubescent boys with hormone overload. Universal wisely kept it PG-13 to maximize the film's target audience. There is plenty of strutting, getting in people's faces, muscle flexing and a street fight about every fifteen minutes. Everyone demands respect and if they don't get it there is either a brawl or a race. Director Rob Cohen, who cut his directorial teeth on `Miami Vice', has an implicit understanding of what makes male movies work and he pulls out all the stops in this film.

Unfortunately, Cohen gets so immersed in the street culture that he recklessly reinforces antisocial conduct as normative. The film sends a consistent message that honor and loyalty to one's friends are more important than the obeying the law. The police are portrayed as jerks and fools. The only way to handle injustice is to take matters into your own hands. You stick up for your friends even if they are criminals and you are a cop. If another cop disrespects one of your undercover friends, you slug him. While this might be an accurate reflection of the culture, I feel compelled to interject that the movie industry has a social responsibility to teach our youth good lessons rather than bolster countercultural behavior in the name of realism.
Once you get past the script, the film gets extraordinarily high technical marks for the action photography and stunts. The cars are first rate. Most of the ones seen at the race wars were owned by actual street racers who brought their cars from everywhere to be in the film. The film has so much adrenaline pumping action that by the time it is finished you need oxygen and a yoga session to settle yourself down. I can't ever remember a film that had so many cars going airborne. There is more molten, smoking rubber in this film than in a Perelli manufacturing plant. The final stunt where the cars are racing to beat the train across the railroad crossing is an awesome, heart-stopping thrill ride. It is easy to see why kids flocked to this film.
The most notable member of the cast is Paul Walker (The Skulls, Pleasantville) who steps up to the lead for the first time. In the featurette included with the DVD, Rob Cohen declares Walker a modern day Steve McQueen. I'm afraid not. McQueen, who saw his heyday in the 1950's and 60's, was a swaggering, audacious male lead brimming with machismo and frequently compared to Paul Newman (who was the star in `Somebody Up There Likes Me', the first film in which McQueen appeared). Walker is a pussycat by comparison. If Walker were to be compared to anyone of that generation it would be Troy Donohue, the good looking heart throb of the 1960's. Donohue wasn't extremely dynamic, but the camera loved him, and so did the teenage girls. Walker fits comfortably into that description.
If there is one standout in the film it is Vin Diesel as Dominic. Diesel carries every scene in which he appears with a pure and imposing power that is present whether he is scrapping or just standing there. He is mostly tough, but in the scene where he tells Brian about his father, he shows that he can conjure up a vulnerable side. He presents his character in a way that is both charismatic and complex, part villain and part hero. No one else in this cast is anywhere near Diesel's league as an actor.
Jordana Brewster shows some promise as Dominic's sister and Brian's love interest. Rick Yune, whose performance I enjoyed in `Snow Falling on Cedars', is menacing and believable as the leader of the Asian gang.
This film has a limited audience, but is well done for its target market. I rated it a 7/10 on the strength of the action and stunts. The story is about a 2/10, but the racing and chase scenes are as good as it gets.