Review: Fast & Furious

Not enough Michelle, but plently of action to go around in Fast & Furious

Simply put, the combination of director Lin and the imposing original cast pays off: it’s kinetic energy meets charisma (and a whole lot of cars) in a fitting and mostly successful amalgamation of the previous entries in the series.

Fast & Furious opens with two bravura introductions, one a ridiculous (but wonderfully so) heist of a 4-tank petroleum truck, and the second a visceral foot chase through the streets of Los Angeles. These are intros deserving of the series’ personable stars, for with each deficiency in the so-called ‘acting department,’ they make up for it with a whole lotta persona, and by God, does it work. On the flipside, we have director Justin Lin, who breathed legitimate kinetic energy into the series in 2006’s The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, and I say legitimate because while the throwaway-critique phrase is often used to refer to a purely stylistic visual show, Lin, with Drift, infused actual life into the series; we cared about the characters, however lame or pretty-faced, and what happened to them in a place that wasn’t just some stock-exotic setting. Returning writer Chris Morgan should also be praised in this respect. However, Fast & Furious isn’t without its flaws.

First and foremost, there’s frankly not enough Michelle; Michelle Rodriguez was and is the most talented of the group and her prolonged absence is a real drag (though her exit is handled surprisingly with grace). The picture as a whole feels a bit overlong and a handful of scenes feel a beat or two off. The fact is—unfortunately—nothing lives up to the great first act and couldn’t even if it tried, but the film manages to hold on through the finale—much more successfully than Lin did in Drift, which frankly fell apart at that point in the story.

Lin also manages to uphold much of the effective formula of the series, for one, in featuring the welcomed presence of a solid veteran actor (Jack Conley, preceded by Ted Levine, James Remar, and Sonny Chiba, respectively). He also casts a crowd of familiar young faces (Laz Alonso, Ron Yuan, Brandon T. Jackson, Monique Curnen), a sly little component that has worked wonders through each film. The references to the previous stories (Sung Kang of Drift makes an appearance) also work pretty well, through any mention of 2 Fast 2 Furious is left out (which, objectively speaking, is probably for the better). And of course, Lin hits the nail on the head with plenty of hot cars, girls, music, and action to go around. This will surely please your any given Fast & Furious moviegoer.

In the end, Justin Lin probably needs to get back to taking projects more deserving of his talent, but for now, he’s doing a fine job with the Fast and Furious series. Though I doubt this will be the last, Fast & Furious would be a fitting conclusion, being that it effectively summarizes and wraps up the contents of the series’ stories and function. But either way, the film works as what it is: a sparsely flawed, but ultimately winning piece of entertainment that keeps the speed and the fury kicking in full gear.


*** out of ****

~ Patrick Fryberger