Technically and Ethically Flawed

Rating: 4/10 (14 October 2008)

Rather than just bashing this film (albeit well deserved) let me start with the good points. 'The Fast and the Furious' has good production values, cinematography, and performances. The director does a decent job at maintaining pace and the story does offer some character development. Where this movie hurts itself is: 1) Apparent lack of a technical consultant. In the first race scene, Walker's car begins spewing nuts, bolts, and washers from the dashboard (?). Apparently he has plenty of spare parts in places they should not be. In the same race he burns out his cylinders and yet is still able to outrun the police. This movie is filled with such technical flaws (I won't even mention hitting a semi head on and walking away without a scratch); 2) The good guys are a crooked cop and a thief who hijacks trucks. The bad guys are truckers who defend themselves and Asians.; 3) The film-makers should have seriously set aside their own prejudice.-- Although the technical inaccuracies frankly will not bother many at all (hey, if it's entertaining, why not), it's basic asinine concept of protagonists and it's expressed prejudice make it something I cannot recommend. There are several stellar reviews for this movie on this page that rate this movie as good to great. Just take a look at the number of copies of this DVD which are available and the cheap asking price. This should give you an indication that this is a movie you will not want to see again and that at least a few of the stellar reviews are from people wanting to get rid of their copy.