Fast & Furious Review

Rated PG-13 (Intense Sequences of Violence and Action, Some Sexual Content, Language and Drug References)

Running Time: 1 Hour & 47 Minutes

Cast:

Vin Diesel-Dominic Toretto

Paul Walker-Agent Brian O'Conner

Jordana Brewster-Mia Toretto

Michelle Rodriguez-Leticia ‘Letty’ Ortiz

John Ortiz-Ramon Campos

Laz Alonso-Fenix Rise

Gal Gadot-Gisele Harabo

Sung Kang-Han Lue

Jack Conley-Agent Penning

Shea Whigham-Agent Ben Stasiak

Liza Lapira-Agent Sophie Trinh

Directed by Justin Lin

Just like old times, ain't it?

On April 3rd, “Fast & Furious,” the fourth installment of “The Fast & the Furious” franchise, exploded out of the box office with an impressive opening weekend take of $71 million, beating out March’s “Watchmen,” which earned $55 million. The first film, “The Fast & the Furious,” was released way back in 2001, jumpstarting the careers of both Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. It was a surprise summer hit, which prompted Universal to green-light the sequels. Unsurprisingly, none of them surpassed the quality of the original thanks to the departure of Diesel in “2 Fast 2 Furious” and Walker in “The Fast & the Furious Tokyo Drift.” Now, Universal has done the smart thing and has reunited the original cast in what should have been the true sequel.

MINOR SPOILERS FOLLOW! Taking place between the second and third films, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) has escaped to the Dominican Republic, hijacking fuel tankers for a living with his girlfriend, Leticia ‘Letty’ Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez). With the authorities breathing on their neck, Dominic decides to leave Letty, unable to convince her to run away with him to another country again. Meanwhile, back in the United States, FBI agent Brian O’ Conner (Paul Walker) is chasing down a lead, literally, on notorious drug lord Arturo Braga. His investigation leads him to a man named David Park, who helps people gain entrance into illegal street races. Dominic is forced to return to Los Angeles after his sister, Mia (Jordana Brewster), contacts him with terrible news: Letty has been murdered. He manages to learn of David Park as well, crossing paths with O’ Conner. Despite the two being suspicious of each other, Dominic and Brian reluctantly work together and infiltrate Ramon Campos’ (John Ortiz) illegal street race so that they can bring Braga and Letty’s murderer to justice.

During one the street races, O’ Conner says to Dominic that ‘A lot has changed.’ Well, you could’ve fooled me because the plot here is nothing special and paper-thin. In fact, the movie begins the EXACT same way as the original! Director Justin Lin is competent in making a highly stylized film with an easy-to-follow narrative but it feels like he’s just recycling from every other action movie in recent memory. The plot is nothing but an excuse to just bring Diesel and Walker back rather than a serious attempt to pump new life into this already worn franchise. In a way, it reminds me of “The Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” (directed by Rob Cohen, who also helmed the original “Fast & the Furious”) where an unnecessary installment to an aging franchise was made, except there was no demand for one, leaving the only reason that the film was released was to squeeze out every last drop of revenue left for said franchise. I know that audiences don’t go to see films like “Fast & Furious” for an Oscar-worthy story but some originality from screenwriter Chris Morgan would’ve greatly helped.

This leaves the cast to make the film work but most of the time, it’s hit-or-miss thanks to the clichéd dialogue. Vin Diesel can be pretty good if he puts his heart into it but here, all he does is stare at the camera in a grimace. Either that or he bursts into anger and starts throwing people against walls to pummel the life out of them. There are some scenes where he goes into ‘badass’ mode, especially the final act where he bursts from an underground tunnel in a battered vehicle and slams it into Letty’s murderer. In his deep baritone voice, he says, ‘Pussy.’ Paul Walker is less interesting this time around, playing a role we’ve seen countless times before: the disobedient law enforcer who often takes matters into his own hands. While the original “Fast & the Furious” didn’t have a particularly deep story, his character goes through an identity crisis where he’s torn between his love for Mia and his commitment to bring the illegal street racers, including her brother, to justice. None of that exists here and “Fast & Furious” boils down to a buddy cop film where Brian and Dominic stalk the same prey, brought together by circumstance with neither fully trusting the other. The two remaining cast members, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster, appear in a handful of scenes, amounting to glorified cameos. It seems like they were written into the story for no other reason because they appeared in the first film. Yes, they are central to the plot, but they do not take part in it. The supporting cast members fill the standard roles seen in cop films, with Jack Conley as O’ Conner’s superior who is determined to being the criminals to justice as quickly as possible, Shea Whigham as the rival, disbelieving FBI agent, and John Ortiz as evil Mexican drug lord. Why are all drug lords from Mexico anyway? I’m pretty sure you can get heroin from other countries too, but I digress.

“Fast & Furious” is truly style over substance and it does the style pretty well. You see many stylish cars with slick paint jobs and engines with all these pseudo-modifications. Many of the car races features over-the-top crash sequences that stretches the laws of physics to video game territory. All of them are filled to the brim with scantily-clad women, often making out with each other. Yes, it does tickle my inner hormonal teenage self but it doesn’t change the fact that “Fast & Furious” features a sub-par plot and non-existent character development.

When the film was released two weeks ago, I didn’t think too much on it, mainly because “The Fast & the Furious” franchise never really appealed to me but after reading about its impressive opening weekend gross, I decided to check it out. The fact that it reunited the original cast certainly piqued my interest. Unfortunately, my initial negative expectations turned out to be all true and when the entire theater applauded as the end credits rolled, I seriously was dumbfounded. Still, if you’re a hardcore fan of the franchise, than more power to you. I also want to mention that the theater I went to had a large amount of kids and one of them was screaming throughout an entire chase sequence! Professional critics were largely not enthusiastic about “Fast & Furious” and it currently holds a rather low 26% on Rotten Tomatoes, the lowest out of the entire franchise. They cited that while the film had ‘the requisite action and stunts, the filmmakers have failed to provide a competent story or compelling characters.’ Still, what both professional and amateur critics think is meaningless as I mentioned before with its record-breaking April debut. Currently, the film has grossed $118 million domestic and with the foreign box office factored in, $149 million worldwide. At this rate, it’ll easily surpass “2 Fast 2 Furious” and possibly the original. Universal has done the smart thing bringing back the original cast and it does make a difference, but not a lot and it seems like a last, desperate attempt to keep a worn franchise going. “Fast & Furious” features the expected car races and over-the-top stunts, but at the end of the day, it’s more of the same. Even the title feels lazy; all they did was remove the word ‘The.’ Fans will no doubt come out in droves (they already have!) but the franchise is fast losing fuel since the release of “Tokyo Drift” and I think it’s time for Universal to put this one in the garage for the long term.

Final Rating: 2.5 out of 5

“A real driver knows exactly what's in his car.”