FAST AND FURIOUS

The murder of his girlfriend forces fugitive Dominic Toretto out of hiding and back into Los Angeles. In order to avenge her death Toretto must reluctantly join forces with onetime friend and betrayer Brian O'Conner. Together they must infiltrate a drug cartel to flush out the killer.

FAST AND FURIOUS reunites the original cast which includes Vin Diesel (Dominic Toretto), Paul Walker (Brian O'Conner), Jordana Brewster (Mia Toretto) and Michelle Rodriguez (Letty). John Ortiz (Ramon Campos) rounds up the cast as this film's villain. The film is written by Chris Morgan and directed by Justin Lin.

FAST AND FURIOUS picks up five years later from where the original THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS left off. It can also be considered as a prequel to the sequels 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS and TOKYO DRIFT. If that didn't confuse you just think of it as Part 4. Judging from the title alone, the filmmakers really couldn't care less about making this version bigger or better. The film's tagline declares "New Model, Original Parts," but after watching it the more appropriate tagline would be Salvaged Model, Bootleg Parts. The film opens in the Dominican Republic where Modern Day Robin Hood, Dom Toretto leads his band of thieves in a daring convoy heist of something they like to call "liquid gold." All that trouble to steal some petrol? I guess that's the Hollywood method because simply knocking the driver out cold and speeding off with his tanker truck would be too humdrum. The plot is just a hybrid of the first two movies, minus the cool cars, the urban humour and the underground street racing world. What remains is a washed up thug looking for revenge and a confused FBI agent trying to make amends. Toretto and O'Conner are conveniently looking for the same drug lord and the only way into that world is to win an audition race. This little plot point is identical to that used in Part 2 of the series. Even the entire dynamic of distrust between Toretto and O'Conner has been cloned from the first movie. The death of a loved one being the cause for revenge (Letty) and the rekindling of a long lost love (O'Conner and Mia) are clear examples of the generic plotlines exploited in the film.

The dialogue is a treat for the true lover of clichés. With such lingual gems like, "ride or die," "this is where my jurisdiction ends…and this is where mine begins," and my personal favourite "to the ladies we've loved, and to the ladies we've lost," the talk is a mix of the Old West and a Julio Iglesias song. It is understandable that movies like this cater to a certain demographic, but Hollywood writers need to desist from insulting the audience's intelligence so deliberately.

The technical aspects of the film also fall short when compared to its predecessors. The cinematography is unoriginal, the sound is forgettable, the editing is passable and the soundtrack does not enhance the images. It's as if the director used one of his I-Pod Playlists and selected some random hip hop songs to give the film some urban flavour. What really stands out is the videogame-like action scenes used in the race sequence as well as the cave-drive sequence. It didn't feel like I was watching a movie, instead it felt like I was watching someone play a game of Gran Turismo.

It seems the actors put in exactly the same amount of effort into their roles, as did the filmmakers in trying to come up with the title for the film. Michelle Rodriguez as usual is playing the same role she has played in every single film she has ever done, the tough girl. Jordana Brewster is proof that good looks will not get you everywhere. If you were to replace Jordana with a mannequin, I'm sure none would be the wiser. Paul Walker gives his trademark Surfer-Dude delivery and Vin Diesel gives his typical stone-cold performance. Having acted in such primo films like MIAMI VICE, AMERICAN GANGSTER and the upcoming PUBLIC ENEMIES (with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale) it is surprising to see John Ortiz playing a mediocre role in Part 4 of a waning franchise.

Since this is a conventional formulaic Hollywood action flick, one cannot be too critical. The fact is this entire thing had been done before, but Universal Studios still went ahead and did another one. This is evidence that the Hollywood Idea Machine is running out of concepts. Justin Lin is merely a director for hire, having helmed the third film THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT he is the logical choice for directing this one. Lin is better suited for directing automobiles and not actors. But all the blame should not be placed on Lin alone; Chris Morgan the writer deserves much of it for penning such a shameless script. FAST AND FURIOUS is an unashamed copy of an uninspired, uninteresting and purely unexciting film. Try saying that 4 times, really fast and furiously!

Rating: 2/5

S. V. Fernando