Fast cars...bad acting

Rating: 5/10 (16 July 2002)

As others have already said, I didn't have an interest in seeing this movie, even though my friends always made a big deal about it. The only way I was seeing this movie was if I didn't have to pay for it, which I didn't. I enjoyed the fast cars, because, I like fast cars. I am sure that this movie, and the sequel which is scheduled to come out next year, will forever be a cult classic amongst the import-race car enthusiasts. Yet, those people will watch the movie not for the amazing acting or directing or writing, but for the fast paced car scenes. This is the way I would only watch this movie again, just to see the fast cars. Vin Diesel was boring, monotone, and simply unbelievable as a person. His speeches were well rehersed, but they came off as phony and unemotional. Paul Walker was perhaps the best actor in the movie. I have seen him in other films so I know this wasn't his acting high point. I would have to blame the director and/or the writer for this. Walker had his moments, but there were some very lame ones too. There were too many points in the movie that left me hanging. Diesel's character and the leader of the Asian gang exchange some words early on in the film which builds the tension and the excitement for the rest of the movie. The whole time I am thinking that we are going to see a hard core drag race match-up between the two characters- and we never do. We see a fist fight between them, but it isn't what I wanted. It wasn't what the film pumped up. The final scene was just about pointless and useless for the film. Nothing was resolved. A drag race and a car is demolished. Out of everybody, we know that one person is dead, another wounded, a couple MIA, and nothing is certain, or even hinted at what the future has for the two main characters.
It had good editing, and good cinematography, but that can't make the movie. Bad acting, bad directing along with a bad script simply made the movie bad. I give it a 5 out of 10, only because I wanted to see the cars, and wanted to see if it was going to get any better. I was really anticipating a nude scene, or even some more skin with Michelle Rodriguez, yet that never happened either. I was disappointed by her role as well, since I had heard all this excitment about her in the movie.