Fast, Furious But Formulaic!

Rating: 8/10 (24 April 2009)

Not surprisingly, plot takes a back seat to action in "Dragonheart" director Rob Cohen's "The Fast and the Furious," with Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Paul Walker, and Matt Schulze. This cinematically souped-up, hot rod retread of "Point Break" (1987) with illegal street racing instead of skydiving and surfing qualifies as an entertaining but amoral thriller with enough action to satisfy the most attention-deficit viewer.
A white LAPD rookie cop who wants a detective's shield goes undercover in to crack down on a ring of daredevil truck hijackers. Gritty performances from a credible ensemble cast topped off with gripping, high-velocity races that smoke "Gone in 60 Seconds" and "Driven" offset this fast-paced but formulaic anthology of clichés that masquerades as a plot. Once upon a time, Hollywood designed movies as morality plays, rewarding good and punishing evil. Those conventional rules no longer apply in our enlightened liberal 21st century. Nowadays, villains stand a better-than-average chance of escaping the consequences of their skullduggery.
At least, "The Fast and the Furious" differs from the usual summer tripe, because it ushers audiences into another world where rival Los Angeles youth gangs race nitrous oxide-powered illegal street roadsters with computer-controlled fuel injection systems. Scenarists Gary Scott Thompson of "Hollow Man," freshman writer Erick Bergquist, John Pogue of "U.S. Marshals," and David Ayer of "U-571" based their preposterous but unpredictable screenplay on Ken Li's "Vibe" magazine article.
The twentysomething protagonists in "The Fast and the Furious" go to elaborate lengths to close down quarter-mile stretches of roads to drag race in the nocturnal urban landscape. They post sentinels to monitor the local authorities on scanners so that they can evade detection from the police and drive like hellions. Indeed, this kind of thing really happens. Dominic 'Dom' Toretto (brawny Vin Diesel of "Saving Private Ryan") reigns as the underworld king of dragsters. "I live my life a quarter-mile at a time," this hard-bitten, existential felon confides in Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker of "The Skulls"), "and for those ten seconds, I'm free." Brian races against Dom, but he loses. Later, he rescues Dom conveniently when the LAPD arrests fleeing hot rodders from a drag race. Luckily, our hero finds himself on the inside track with the suspects. Dom's childhood buddy Vince (Matt Schulze of "Blade") accuses Brian of being a cop. When Dom asks Brian, our hero deftly sidesteps the question. No sooner has Brian ingratiated himself with Dom than he finds himself infatuated with the prime suspect's sexy kid sister Mia (Jordana Brewster of "The Faculty") and plumbs her for information. Eventually, Mia breaks down and fesses up to Brian, but not before the villains stage one final hijacking. Brian and Mia race off to stop them before it is too late.
Americans worship rebels, and these charismatic hot rodders attain larger-than-life, heroic stature in "The Fast and the Furious." Not only does this actioneer deliberately flaunt the law with an out-of-the-blue surprise ending, but the filmmakers also invite negative charges for glorifying the reckless shenanigans of their ultra-cool, anti-establishment dragsters. The chief offending scene depicts a dangerous game of chicken between the hero and villain to see who can beat a train across an intersection and survive.
Altogether, the testosterone-fueled, adrenaline-laced races make "The Fast and the Furious" worth strapping yourself in for if your summer appears to be heading for the doldrums. The sequels "2 Fast 2 Furious" and "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" were average, but the protagonists from the original would not regroup until 2009's third sequel "Fast and Furious" with Vin Diesel and Paul Walker working hand in hand to bust a notorious drug dealer. The special effects shots when the car engines receive their jolts of nitrous oxide are imaginative. Brian O'Connor's boss is played by none other than "Silence of the Lambs" serial killer Ted Levine. Director Rob Cohen has a cameo as a pizza delivery driver and producer Neal H. Moritz cruises through one scene in a Ferrari.