This dumb but highly enjoyable film has spawned a franchise which will soon give us the sixth instalment. As directed by master of the fun B movie Rob Cohen, the film breezes along with zero plot, minimal characterisation and wooden acting knowing that all the audience really care about are the fast cars.
Paul Walker plays Brian O'Conner, a wannabe street racer keen to gain respect by getting in with the crew of Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel). Saving Toretto from the police, Brian is granted access to the team and also to Dom's sister Mia (Jordana Brewster). However, Brian is actually a policeman working undercover to find out which group of street racers are also carrying out armed robberies of trucks on the roads. Could it be the Hispanic crew, the Japanese crew ot Dom's crew itself? As Brian gets more and more involved he feels his loyalties being tested - is he going native?
Yes, this is exactly the same plot as the far superior Point Break with Walker as Keanu Reeves, Vin Diesel as Patrick Swayze and racing instead of extreme sports. Walker even acts like the vacant Reeves and the central homoerotic bromance evokes Bigelow's film too. What makes it all work however is Cohen's awareness that his sole mission is to produce a fun and forgettable hour and a half for an undemanding audience. Apart from the odd clever visual trick in the initial street race, he lets the cars do the talking, content to just point and shoot. Things getting a little slow? Just drop in a semi porn love scene or a long lingering shot panning up the chassis of a muscle car or a leggy brunette - job done.
The Fast and the Furious's lack of pretension is its saving grace and it (ahem) motors along at a fair old pace, with the requisite amount of racing, crashing, fighting and snogging. For fans of the modern movie hunk, Walker is as plastic as you'd want and for the more descerning lady who hankers after the real men of old, Vin Diesel with his bullet head and a voice that sounds like it belongs to the Mafia, is perfect as the toughie with a heart. Michelle Rodriguez gets to do nothing but pout and the rest of the crew are totally one note (lunk, nerdy and marked for death, etc). None of this matters, however, as Cohen has a blast with the driving sequences including a fantastically over the top but effective climax that eschews CGI for old school thrills (and is all the better for it). This may not be art but it's a heck of a lot of fun.
GK Rating: ***
The Blog of Delights
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