Review of The Fast and the Furious (2001) by James S — 11 Oct 2011
Or in actual fact, the slow and the labourious.
Approaching a film about street racing which stars Vin Diesel one shouldn't really set their sights too high but you might expect this to at least have a bit of the sense of fun that xXx did.
Walking plank Paul Walker is the undercover cop trying to infiltrate the world of street racing in Los Angeles to get to the bottom of a bunch of truck heists which have been deduced to be carried out using race cars. It's not a bad set up and much livelier than Walker's acting ability.
Vin Diesel is a man who has proven that he needn't be terrible if he is given the right role. His turn as Riddick in Pitch Black was one of the reason that film is a modern sci-fi classic. Unfortunately his role here is far from Riddick and doesn't have the one liners that Xander Cage in xXx had to back him up, just an under-used Michelle Rodriguez, and falls almost as flat as Walkers.
The rest of the cast, with perhaps the exception of Jordana Brewster, are a bunch of forgettables trying to sound cool by spouting garbage about engines and crap like that.
A film like Fast & The Furious though will not live or die by it's plot and acting. If you're watching this you want to probably see some cars going really fast and flipping through the air a few times. While there is some of this in the movie, it's a long time coming with the first vehicular set piece being a dull, cgi laden affair. There is a great sequence involving a truck heist towards the end of the movie which provides the films sole redeeming scene and this is done very well and is pretty exciting.
The climax is a wash out and the movie ends on a fizzle rather than a bang following the aforementioned truck jacking scene.
No one could kid themselves that they were trying to make an Oscar contender here but they should have been striving to make a film that was pure popcorn entertainment. In that they've certainly failed as the film feels long and a real grind to get through.
This review of The Fast and the Furious (2001) was written by James S on 11 Oct 2011.
The Fast and the Furious has generally received positive reviews.
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