The Fast And The Furious
Most actors go their entire careers hoping to find themselves smack dab in an honest to God movie franchise and NOT for the purposes of artistic integrity either, but rather for those heady, steady paychecks that come your way when they decide to make yet another sequel and they need you back to play your character. Perhaps no franchise in cinema history has been more lucrative to its core cast than this one which started off its run with this 2001 release and was a relatively easy sell for many, centering around illegal street racing and the motorheads and car fanatics who engage in it compulsively. Being the definitive film up to that time about this subject, audiences flocked to the theatres and it became an obvious hit, lining up its main cast including Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster for many future assembly line paydays to come all the way up to today. Unfortunately for star Paul Walker, his own run with the series would come to a tragic end in 2013 thanks to a fiery car wreck under VERY suspicious circumstances. But here as the lead actor (or co lead with Diesel), he gets to mark his territory with this first entry that comes across as being acceptably dumb fun with its unrealistic depiction of street racing as something where large crowds gather on public boulevards (essentially closing them off to any civilian drivers) late at night to watch the spectacle of their hero Dominic Toretto (Diesel) taking on one challenger after another. The opening scenes showing Walker’s determination to ingratiate himself into Diesel’s crowd by showing up every day to their run down looking little deli (where Diesel sits in the back office with the back of his head being as prominent as Marcellus Wallace) and flirting with Diesel’s sister (Brewster) before eventually having the balls to challenge Diesel directly at one of their racing meets, both illegal and pointless at the same time but also with cold hard cash at stake along with the occasional pink slip which indicates ownership of said racing vehicle which Walker stakes in his very first race before losing to Diesel. For no reason whatsoever other than to get a little extra money, Diesel and his pals also have a side venture of robbing trucks of their valuable cargo (presumably for a fencing operation that is never shown) and that is the REAL reason for Walker’s interest as we learn 30 minutes into the film that he is actually an undercover cop staking Diesel’s crew out when he goes to give a status report to his superiors (including Ted “Buffalo Bill” Levine giving another one of his lovable mealy mouthed character performances). Problem is, Walker has grown to love the racing lifestyle complete with the anticipated adrenaline rushes and as he falls deeper in with Diesel’s crew and the sister Brewster, seems to be reluctant about fingering them for the truck robberies (the only thing that law enforcement is interested in since they could care less about the dangerous street racing) and instead steers his bosses towards a Chinese group of racers who had the audacity to destroy his car over some kind of personal issues with Diesel since they see Walker rolling with him. The movie’s writing entirely fails to capture the depth of the situation an undercover cop can find himself in (such as The Departed) where said cop finds himself so torn and estranged by the burden of his job that he doesn’t even know who he really is anymore. Likewise with Diesel playing the so called “villain” of the piece since that same script does absolutely everything in its power to make him a nice guy even though the truck heists (which feature some heavy duty daredevil stuntwork that most criminals simply wouldn’t have the sheer athleticism to even try) aren’t even properly explained away as being exercises in thrillseeking as was the case in Point Break. Nope, it’s simply put out there that Diesel’s crew needed some extra cash and that they had nothing better to do in order to get it (which makes it even more hilarious when they’re single handedly brought down during the final robbery not by Walker but rather a random shotgun toting truck driver who had heard about their previous exploits and came loaded for bear). Meanwhile, Walker achieves the not so mean feat of blowing his cover by confessing to Brewster that he’s a cop and out to bring her brother down because she has already fallen head over heels in love with him so she doesn’t get too mad over this revelation and the finale which sees an excessive number of characters brought down and left for dead with little to no explanation as to whether or not they actually survived along with the abrupt final scene which answers no questions whatsoever about the outcome of the case (although they do help set up the sequels) leaves one to wonder if director Rob Cohen was purposely going for a borderline surreal approach where realism was going straight out the window and all that mattered was the immediate head rush. Certainly, the stuntwork is amazing here as the car races themselves (regardless of who happens to be driving at any given moment) are the highlight of the film and the Southern California scenery is truly a thing of beauty. But the schizophrenic nature of the duel lead actors and which one we’re supposed to root for (many will say that Diesel’s hardass Toretto is the more tangible protagonist instead of Walker’s pretty boy cop) even as both seem to cancel each other out with the absolute stupidity of some of their actions as Walker’s romance with Brewster leads even his law enforcement superiors to question his ability to do the job and Diesel’s crew choosing to put on an unnecessarily amazing stunt show in order to pull off truck robberies when there are obviously more practical ways to do it makes one wonder if just simply focusing on the realm of street racing in the guise of a one size fits all sports drama would have been the better way to go instead of all of the wafer thin cloak and dagger tactics which we are subjected to. But people still really do love cars and having an action movie where all of the criminals also happen to be car fanatics would seem to be the marketing strategy at play here even if the script and storyline leave much to be desired…
5/10