After 2 Fast 2 Furious and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious' writers decided to go for simplicity in a title for this fourth installment of their street-racing series.
And the title is apt in that it doesn't take long to become furious at what's on the screen.
None of the guys revving their engines in the parking lot were expecting Shakespeare when they stepped into that theater. They were expecting hot chicks and sick street racing. And while the former was in abundance, the latter was few and far between.
Fast & Furious reunites us with Dom (Vin Diesel) and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), who are constantly on the run from the cops. Dom leaves Letty, hoping she will be safer without him, only to later find out she has been murdered. Dom wants revenge, so he gets back into the Los Angeles street-racing scene to find out who killed his woman.
It's a very somber note on which to kick off an action movie, and that gloominess hangs over the entire film. The movie gets too hung up in backstory, trading action sequences for a rehashing of the series' mythology.
The film's tagline, "New Model. Original Parts" refers to the fact that the original cast is reunited for the first time since the first 2001 film. The presence of the crew gives viewers hopes that the film will recapture the high-octane energy of the original, but it never does.
It doesn't help that Vin Diesel is completely unable to show any kind of emotion. This was made ridiculously clear when audience members laughed at a shot of Diesel standing next to his girlfriend's grave. This was definitely not intended to be funny, but Diesel's flexed muscles and blank expression was just too much to handle.
Diesel's not the only offender though -- all of the acting is stiff. But even an Oscar-winning actor wouldn't be able to do much with the uninspiring dialogue, which is full of corny one-liners that sound like the rejects from a James Bond movie.
The fact that Paul Walker's character, an FBI agent who infiltrated Diesel's street-racing world eight years ago and was ultimately exposed, is still able to walk freely within this world without getting severely beaten is hard to believe. As is nearly every other aspect of the film.
The original certainly wasn't a pillar of intelligent film-making, but its high level of action made viewers able to overlook that flaw. This film's most exciting action sequence takes place at the very end, and is cut off prematurely. Perhaps in anticipation of another sequel. The Furious 5, maybe?
You don't have to hold Fast & Furious to the standards of Oscar-caliber films to know that it's a dud. Compared to other films in its genre and in its series, Fast and Furious is far less logical and more importantly, less fun.
Grade: D
