The Fast and the Furious

PLOT (spoiler alert!!!):

Elite street racer and ex-convict Dominic “Dom” Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew: Jesse (Chad Lindberg), Leon (Johnny Strong), Vince (Matt Schulze), and Dom’s girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), use three modified 1995 Honda Civics to perpetrate a string of high-speed, semi-trailer truck hijackings, stealing over $6 million in merchandise. LAPD officer Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) is sent undercover on a joint LAPD-FBI investigation to apprehend the gang. Brian uses his cover job at The Racer’s Edge, an aftermarket parts shop, to make connections and infiltrate the local street racing scene. He enters his modified 1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse RS-T 420A into an illegal race with Dom and two other drivers by bartering the pink slips, but loses to Dom’s modified 1993 Mazda RX-7. Brian gains Dom’s respect, however, when he arrives in time to prevent Dom from being caught by police responding to the race. As they flee, Dom and Brian accidentally venture into southern California’s “Little Saigon”, encountering Dom’s rival, Johnny Tran (Rick Yune) and his gang, who open fire with submachine guns; rupturing the nitrous tank and destroying the Eclipse in the resulting explosion.

The next day, Brian delivers a totaled 1994 Toyota Supra to Dom’s shop and offers his talents as a driver to repay the debt incurred from losing the race. Brian begins dating Dom’s sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) and Jesse goes to work restoring the Supra. The investigation eventually leads Brian to suspect Tran and his gang of performing the hijackings and he reports the findings to his superior, Sergeant Tanner (Ted Levine) and FBI Special Agent Bilkins (Thom Barry). When the subsequent raid of Tran’s garage prove him to be innocent, Bilkins and Tanner return to their original theory that Dominic and his crew are the perpetrators. Tanner warns Brian not to let his feelings for Mia or his friendship with Dom cloud his judgment, and Bilkins gives Brian thirty-six hours to break the case.

With the Supra now fully prepped to race, Brian presses Dom for information regarding his income, citing the shop alone wouldn’t pay for all his racing expenditures. Dom gives Brian an invitation to “Race Wars”, a massive street racing event held in the desert, and informs him they’ll talk once Brian has proven his worth on the strip. Jesse races and loses his imprisoned father’s modified 1995 Volkswagen Jetta to Tran’s modified 2000 Honda S2000. Jesse panics and hastily flees the track, prompting Tran to confront Dom and demand that he retrieve the car for him. Dom refuses and is provoked into a fight in which he brutally beats Tran. Early the next morning, Dom and his crew leave Race Wars to commit another hijacking.

Brian confesses to Mia his status as an undercover cop and convinces her to come with him to save her brother and his friends from the armed truck drivers. He tracks Dom’s location by triangulating his cell phone signal and they arrive at the hijacking in-progress to find Letty, badly injured at the car accident, and Vince critically wounded, having been shot by the truck driver. Brian and Mia work together with Dom, Leon and Letty to rescue Vince. Brian then makes the difficult decision to blow his cover to the crew by phoning in for a medivac. The revelation enrages Dom, but he contains himself and flees with Leon, Letty and Mia as the medivac arrives for Vince.

Brian follows Dom to his house and holds him at gunpoint to prevent him from fleeing. Jesse arrives shortly afterwards, apologizing for his actions at Race Wars and pleading for Dom’s help with Tran. Moments later, Tran and his cousin Lance (Reggie Lee) perform a drive-by shooting and kills Jesse. Brian and Dom chase them, with Dom was driving his late father’s modified 1970 Dodge Charger. Dom forces Lance’s motorcycle off the road, severely injuring him, while Brian shoots and kills Tran. Afterwards, Brian and Dom engage in an impromptu street race, narrowly avoiding a passing train. Dom is then very badly injured when he collides with a semi-truck and rolls his car twice, rendering the Charger undrivable. Instead of arresting him, Brian hands over the keys to the Supra and lets Dom escape, making good on his promise to deliver a “ten second car.” Some time later, Dom is seen driving through Baja California, Mexico in a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS.

REVIEW:

 There are some action movies that do nothing more than get the adrenaline flowing, and throw a little bit of plot in there. Shoot ‘Em Up, The A-Team, Crank, and Crank: High Voltage immediately come to mind. Now, these are some of my favorite films, so since The Fast and the Furious is said to have been made in the same mold of mostly action and little plot, I should love this film, theoretically.

The plot of the film is that an undercover cop is trying to infiltrate and take down street gangs and in the process street racing. In the process of being under he develops a close relationship with the guy he’s supposed to bring down, and, especially his sister. As you can imagine, this cases conflict not only within himself, bt with his superiors, as well. Oh, and there’s also this subplot about some kind of gang war.

The first thing I have to mention is the cars. These things are tricked out about as much as they can possibly be. Now, while I wold never be caught dead driving one, I have to give the artistry of these paint jobs, and ingenuity it takes to supe them up like that credit.

While there is a plot here, you know good and well the main reason you’re watching this thing is for the cars(although, there is plenty of eye candy for male and females). The races are brilliant, but it is the climactic highway robbery that steals the show, only to be trumped by a vendetta type ride after a couple guys on motorbike, and then a one on one drag between Diesel and Walker. If all that doesn’t get your pulse going, then you need to go check to see if you even still have one.

The pacing of the film is pretty quick, and there really is no lag, except for the times when Paul Walker os talking to his superiors, but this is a necessary scene(s), as they let us know about his character.

With a film like this, acting is not really paramount, as all they really had to do was drive and basically not appear to be soft, with the exception of Jordana Brewster’s character.

Vin Diesel plays this role better than anyone else. It was almost as if this was the kind of movie he was made for, as opposed to something like, say, The Pacifier.

Paul Walker really made a big step toward becoming an action star with this film. Hard to believe that it wasn’t long before this he was antagonizing Freddie Prinze, Jr. in She’s All That, huh?

Michelle Rodriguez was somewhat hot here, and not the usual pissed off look we seemed to usually see from her, although, seeing as how she was basically nothing more than the token girlfriend who just happened to also be a female member of the crew, she kind of had no choice but to be hot, right?

Speaking of hot…Jordana Brewster. As with the rest of the cast, she didn’t really have to do anything bt show up, say a couple of lines, flash some skin for us male viewers and that’s all. I think she did her job to perfection. Now, the only other thing I’ve seen her in is a couple of episodes of Chuck, so I can’t really say she’s a good or bad actress, but she seems to have some real talent…at least more than most models who try to act, anyway.

Final verdict on The Fast and the Furious? Well, there’s plenty of action, that’s for sure. They try to shoehorn in too much of a plot, and that is the downfall of this film. It really takes away from the awesomeness that is occurring on the streets. That being said, if you can get past a film actually having a plot, this really is pretty good…not great, though. This is one of those films you can watch anytime and enjoy. I have to say that this is one of those that you should see before you die, especially since the fifth film in the franchise is coming out in the next few weeks.

4 out of 5 stars

Advertisement