Fast and Furious

Original parts need reworking...

When an oil truck hijacking goes wrong, Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) is forced to leave his girlfriend, Letty (Michelle Rodirguez) and his current crew. However it is not long until he is brought to Los Angeles in order to infiltrate a high speed delivery service under the control of Ramon Campos. At the same time, Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker), an FBI agent, has been following a trail of drug deliveries and his investigation leads him to Campos.

A sequel to 2 Fast 2 Furious and a prequel to Tokyo Drift, Fast and Furious brings back the cast of the original to give the series a reboot of such, as if Tokyo Drift did not attempt the same feat already. As such, Fast and Furious is very much on par with the first two films: it goes back to home territory in America, and ditches the drifting for pure speed racing. Though there is only a single race in the entire film with various chase sequences, so the main appeal of the film, street racing, is not entirely utilized to full effect. Nevertheless, Fast and Furious does attempt to tell a reasonably interesting story. Reasonably because it never really works by the film's end. The story does not take long to give an emotional pull for the audience, but it pans out rather uninterestedly. Toretto and O'Conner have their own agendas' in the main story arc but it becomes far too neatly wrapped. Any calamities brought about by the first two films, such as O'Connor's betrayal of Mia, are brushed aside and given far too conventional, and easy explanations. Make no mistake, Fast and Furious is all about style over substance.

The acting department is not entirely better, but credit must be given to a cast that does indeed try to get the film's feel right with their respective characters. But neither Rodrigruez, Brewster, or the main two, Walker and Diesel, feel anything more then caricatures. And this is a great pity as the script wants to give them more depth but it becomes overshadowed but moderate acting and a weak attempt at story telling; an average script with some weak dialogue doesn't help matters for the actors either.

Though while the film lacks depth it does make up for in its method. The entire film oozes sex appeal from the main cast, the many scantily clad women engaging in rather intimate situations, and the lineup of vehicles. The latter does not play as much of a visual importance as seen in Tokyo Drift which is an indication of the film's more character driven narrative. Car sequences mainly revolve around chases with only a single race event taking place. While races would have made for more exciting set pieces the chases do their job at entertaining. Credit must be given to director Justin lin, who provides some stunning cinematography. He is also quite knowledgeable to invoke symbolism into his filming style for a few scenes. One such has O'Connor, on foot, chasing after a man: the scene is shot in quite a jumpy and jagged manner. However the car sequences are far more smooth, as if the main characters are more in their element while riding a car, then they are as themselves.

There is no sex or nudity, beyond two focuses on two different sets of lesbians kissing and fondling and many provocative outfits and dancing. Violence is never intense but the car sequences show enough wrecked damage. Language is kept down to mostly scatological terms with no hard swearing.

It might be cliched, but Fast and Furious is both fast and furious though it becomes painstakingly obvious as the film develops that it lacks self-control. It is great to see the old cast return but it all feels like a rather forced effort to relive the glory days of the original. The story tries too much to make all characters comfortable with one another; the acting is never up to standard; and there is sadly only one race scene. The director is really the only person who kick starts the films engine: it is a decent film, but it requires a good load of tuning if it wants to score big.

6/10

Screen date: 11 April 2009
Release date: 09 April 2009