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.”
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