Review of The Fast and the Furious (2001) by Alexander D — 10 Sep 2011

I thought a movie which has gotten four sequels would be better than this. My mistake. The plot is dry and drawn out, and features relatively little of the cool car chase action which the trailers, posters, and promotions seemed to promise. I say "cool" because there was a fair amount of car chase action; it just wasn't all that good. (That's just me, though. I tend to prefer car chases with plenty of smashing, crashing, and overall collateral damage, not ridiculously high speeds and a few cool stunts.) The ending is sudden and unsatisfying. I didn't really get it. There is one good scene, when Toretto first shows O'Connor the Dodge his dad built, but for the emotion and deepness introduced in that scene, it never really seems to be well-harnessed again throughout the film. In fact, I wonder how much emotion really belongs in the film; it felt kind of strange- this combination of cheesy high-tech car races and sound effects with (somewhat) deep emotion. That's not to say that fun, meaningless excitement can't be combined with emotion. I've seen many movies that do a fantastic job of that. The Fast and the Furious, however, is not one of those movies.

Overall, the whole film, with its adolescent concept, corny dialogue and action, and even occasionally corny acting, was not quite the four or five star summer flick I had always had the impression it was. I guess I shouldn't be surprised after the way Rob Cohen butchered the third Mummy movie. And yet The Fast and the Furious is surprisingly popular and mainstream, because it is about cars and gangs, whereas many sci-fi movies, like the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, have similarly corny dialgoue, but also cleverer, more intriguing concepts, with a greater capacity to give their audiences a fun time, yet are more readily cast aside by mainstream audiences.