The Fast And The Furious

THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS

Rating: C+

Vin Diesel plays Dominic Toretto, the leader of a group of motorheads in Los Angeles. When the sun goes down, he and his brethren emerge from the woodwork with their souped-up, nitrous oxide fuel-injected street machines, looking for action. Action, in this case, means seeing whose hot rod can smoke the others over a quarter mile of city streets. Paul Walker is the new kid on the block, who shows up one night out of nowhere with a car packing serious ponies. He also has a thing for Diesel's sister, which immediately causes friction with her boyfriend, who happens to be a member of Diesel's close-knit gang. But is there more to Walker than meets the eye?

Although the theatrical trailers have marketed this film as a paean to the street racing subculture, director Rob Cohen and screenwriters Gary Scott Thompson, Erik Bergquist, and David Ayer prove unwilling to keep the story on this level. Instead, right from the beginning they introduce a series of mysterious truck hijackings into the plot. I'm not sure whether this makes the film more of a wolf in sheep's clothing, or a sheep in wolf's clothing, but it definitely gives the movie a more conventional Hollywood cops & robbers feel. I'm guessing racing purists won't appreciate this. Myself, I would have preferred to learn more about what makes these guys tick in real life - what draws them to invest their entire weekly paychecks into chromed superchargers and yards of braided stainless steel hoses. Cohen pays half-hearted lip service to such characterization, but only as a sideline to the main plot. For instance, Diesel is portrayed in a few scenes as a father figure within the group he leads - an interesting premise in light of the gruff, outlaw persona his character purposely projects. A deeper exploration of his character, and the characters of all the people within the group might have made them memorable, but as it stands now, the surface is barely scratched. The guys in this film could just as easily be surfers pulling bank robberies.

There's an organized drag-racing event in the movie dubbed "Race Wars." Interesting name, because I couldn't help noticing that all the street racing gangs in the film are delineated along racial lines. Diesel's group is all white, another group is apparently all hispanic, and a third is entirely asian. Not that big of a deal, except the name "Race Wars" seems to deliberately call attention to this in an underhanded fashion. My real complaint is the asian gang is portrayed as ruthless, vindictive, and just all around unpleasant to be with. Sure, someone has to be the bad guy, but why couldn't the rival gang of meanies be white? It seems like the filmmakers are just recklessly employing one of Hollywood's oldest stereotypes. Come on, guys, this is the new millenium.

Whether you like the storyline or not, you're forced to swallow a lot of improbabilities. If two cars are drag-racing all out toward a railroad crossing, what do you figure the chances are that a train will be coming at that precise moment? If you said 100%, you're either a Hollywood screenwriter or you've already seen this movie. In another scene, Diesel and company catch Walker sneaking around the garage of a rival driver. They angrily demand to know what he's doing there. Meanwhile, we wonder what the hell they were doing there. It's never explained, except that the plot requires it. When Walker shows up at the night races, he states he doesn't have the $2,000 entry fee, but is willing to put his car up instead. Given subsequent revelations, this is either completely impossible or completely stupid on his part (take your pick). Worst by far is the remarkable coincidence involving the vehicles used in the hijackings. Witnesses reported that three identical Honda Civics were employed in the crimes. What are the chances that all three of the street racing gangs each happen to have three identical Honda Civics sitting in their garages? Maybe they're all purposely trying to look guilty, or maybe the screenwriters were snorting some of that nitrous oxide.