The good, the bad and an ugly movie

Rating: 5/10 (28 June 2004)

Rob Cohen's "The Fast And The Furious" has been a box office hit, but is just a disappointment. It's much sight and sound, but like switching through the TV channels with a remote control with no contents at all. There's no hint of a story, just something about some bad young guys driving around in very fast cars, doing illegal and cool things like car races, tuning their turbo killing machines and doing very male stuff like beating the s*** out of themselves. There are some pretty girls as well in sweaty black t-shirts and a good guy who's in fact an undercover police officer who's searching for something and falls in love with the girls of the gang.
Director Cohen's doesn't care at all about a script, a good story and good actors, he's just interested in the straight, fast and loud action of popcorn cinema, and you're getting a lot of that. There are dozens of well-shot car chases, showdowns, gun and fist fights, etc., but it all remains a heartless spectacle with too many stupid dialogues that should be only used in a Spinal Tap movie. The villain is bald and bad and played by Vin Diesel, the hero is blond and bright and played by Paul Walker, the other gang members have beards and are shouting like hell, and the girls are just there for completing the crew. Even the conflict of a policeman investigating undercover and becoming fascinated by a counter culture isn't developed well and explored at all like in William Friedkin's "Cruising" or Katheryn Bigelow's "Point Break" - it's just one more vague cliché presented on an assembly line, fastly running of course.
If you like some mindless highway action you might find some good and entertaining scenes in this movie, but there are lots of better movies built around car chases and vehicle action - check out cult movies like the groovy "Vanishing Point", Steven Spielberg's "Duel", Walter Hill's "Driver", Norman Jewison's great "Rollerball" or the odd "The Cars That Ate Paris" by Peter Weir. "The Fast And The Furious" mainly quotes scenes from these movies and from other car chasing classics like "French Connection", "Bullitt", the "Mad Max", "Terminator" and "Lethal Weapon" series, and even James Dean's legendary car race in "Rebels Without A Cause" is ripped off here. But all in all you're just asking what it is all about and will find the answer in Shakespeare again - much ado about nothing.