I kinda dug the first The Fast and the Furious movie although I was more impressed with star Vin Diesel than I was with the film itself.  In a world of rapidly decaying action movies, I saw him as the heir to Stallone.  The Chronicles of Riddick solidified him in my eyes as the Next Big Thing, but then he made The Pacifier and that pretty much ruined everything.  He made a comeback of sorts last year with the not-bad Babylon A.D. and I had high hopes for Fast and Furious*, his return to the franchise that made him a star.  

Now I never saw 2 Fast 2 Furious, mostly because Diesel wasn’t in it, and likewise skipped the third flick, Tokyo Drift.  When I learned that Vin did indeed have a cameo at the end of that film, I decided to YouTube the final scene to save the trouble of actually renting the movie and having to watch the entire thing just to see his one scene.  The minute long cameo mostly consists of Vin revving his engine and turning to that film’s hero (Lucas Black) and saying, “Are you ready for this?”  Really though, Diesel was asking the audience if they were ready for him to come back to the Fast and the Furious fold.  Boy were we ever. 

The story has Vin Diesel returning to America from his exile in the Dominican Republic so he can avenge the death of his girlfriend (Michelle Rodriguez).  Naturally cop Paul Walker wants the murderer too; mostly because he’s a big time heroin smuggler.  Walker and Diesel grudgingly team up to bring down the bad guys and of course, drive cars fast and furiously.

Fast and Furious is basically a revenge flick.  The main thrust of the story is all about Vin trying to find the dude that killed his woman.  All the hot rodding shit has been kept to the bare minimum, which I liked.  I don’t know shit about cars so all the gearhead aspects of the franchise doesn’t really appeal to me.  What I like is action, and in that department, Fast and Furious delivers.  There’s a great opening action scene that rivals a James Bond movie, as well as a fairly awesome street race; complete with wonderfully cheesy CGIed out GPS graphics.  

Vin carries the movie on his dependable shoulders and does some fucking great action hero type shit that I really admired.  In one standout scene, Diesel gets shot in the back by this asshole and Vin doesn’t even get hurt; just mildly annoyed.  This guy knows he fucked up big time too because he doesn’t even TRY to shoot Vin again, he just immediately goes down on all fours; Duck and Cover style, whimpering.  Diesel hustles over and just starts beating the shit out of the dude for inconveniencing him by putting a bullet in his back.  Brilliant. 

There’s also a great scene where Diesel puts together in his mind how an important accident happened by just looking at the skidmarks on the road.  CGI cars smash and drive through him as he stands around pondering what happened.  I don’t know how credible all this is, but it’s certainly hilarious.  (Especially when all the CGI smoke clears and we just see Diesel standing in the middle of the road with a pissed off look on his face.) 

I also loved the way that Diesel smashed the driver side window of his car out with his elbow so he could blow away a couple punks with a shotgun.  Seriously, this guy doesn’t even fuck with ROLLING down the window.  He smashes it with his goddamn elbow.  Is that badass, or is that badass?  

Walker also does a credible job this time out as a down-and-out detective.  While he’s no match for Diesel, his performance here is miles beyond his usual cardboard self.  The supporting cast is peppered with a lot of hot lesbians who have PG-13 make-out sessions with each other.  Sure, it’s just PG-13 heavy petting, but these are HOT LESBIANS, folks.

Although anchored strongly by a satisfying first half, Fast and Furious quickly runs out of gas before the third act.  There’s a lot of business involving cars driving through mine shafts over and over again and it just kinda gets monotonous after awhile.  Even though Fast and Furious drops it’s transmission before the credits roll, I have to admit, I’ll probably be in line for Fast and Furious 5 (which will probably just be called “Fast/Furious” given this franchise’s knack for dropping words and numbers out of the title) when it comes out; but only if Diesel is back in the driver’s seat.

Diesel naturally gets the best line of the flick when he tells a hot chick, “I appreciate a good body, regardless of the make.”  

*(For whatever reason, the new The Fast and the Furious movie drops all the “Thes” out of the title.  Why they just didn’t call it “The Fast and the Furious 4”, I have no idea.  Oh well, it sounds a Hell of a lot better than 2 Fast 2 Furious, that’s for damn sure.)

Point Break. 

With cars.