Vin Diesel and Paul Walker reteam for the ultimate chapter of the franchise built on speed -- Fast & Furious. Heading back to the streets where it all began, they rejoin Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster to blast muscle, tuner and exotic cars across Los Angeles and floor through the Mexican desert in the new high-octane action-thriller. When a crime brings them back to L.A., fugitive ex-con Dom Toretto (Diesel) reignites his feud with agent Brian O'Conner (Walker). But as they are forced to confront a shared enemy, Dom and Brian must give in to an uncertain new trust if they hope to outmanuever him. And from convoy heists to precision tunnel crawls across international lines, two men will find the best way to get revenge: push the limits of what's possible behind the wheel.
Fast & Furious, about dirtied-up car racing and badass drivers, arrives eight years after The Fast and the Furious revealed the unlikely charms of the sewer-throated, shovel-headed Vin Diesel. Back then, as Diesel's Dominic Toretto burned through L.A. streets, we gasped, Who is that walking Popeye, and why does he sound like he's in a Sylvester Stallone tribute band? Back then we also met Dom's nemesis, Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker), an equally feisty driver (and, as it happened, an undercover cop) as blond and blue-eyed as Toretto was bald and swarthy. We met Dom's cute sister, Mia (Jordana Brewster), who loved Brian, and the tough-babe driver Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), who loved Dom. Mostly we met hot rods driven by hot dogs — and although the movie was no Point Break, it was great to rocket along for the nitrous-injected ride. The Fast and the Furious celebrated great music, cars, and minimally clothed chicks cast as extras. Later on, Dom became a fugitive in Mexico, Brian went to Miami (in 2003's 2 Fast 2 Furious), and the F&F franchise took an invigorating global detour to Japan (2006's The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift), where Diesel's Dom showed up for a cameo. Now the original gang is reunited in L.A. for a victory lap, and they're looking pretty fly for old-timers. The music, strong on reggaeton, still pulses. The chick extras still favor bikini tops. The stars' jawlines are slightly softened, and the lived-in look suits them. (The plot, for what it's worth, is about chasing down a nefarious drug lord — who happens to be hiring guys who can drive real fast.) Fast & Furious is still no Point Break. But it's perfectly aware of its limited dramatic mission, and sturdily directed by Tokyo Drift's Justin Lin with space for a global audience to talk back to the screen. And in the jammed landscape of mass-market new releases, it offers an attractive getaway route from self-importance, snark, and chatty comedies about male bonding. Here, stick shifts do the talking. It's not called "Fast & Furious: Schindler's List". Perfect reboot if you like the genre. Big crashes, property mayhem, and sparse dialogue. The producers didn't bother with a screenwriter but did hire crash experts. The dialogue is ham-fisted but there is not much of it. And there is no discernible acting. These are things the F&F audience is not going to pay for. It could have used a screenwriter but I assume no one wanted to waste their great lines on a Vin Diesel opus. With careers stalled, Diesel (who was seduced back with a producer credit), Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster return. In keeping with their characters, Diesel, Walker and Brewster do not bother using this as an audition for other roles. The producers should have left Brewster wherever she was. I would not have missed her. On the other hand, Rodriguez is always fun to watch. The ingredients that made the original "The Fast & The Furious" a hit are here: car racing through a city and lots of crashes. Do we want sensitive scenes and tears? No! But they could have put in a hot sex scene with that hi-anorexic ball buster (Gal Gadof) who everyone feared and listened to for no good reason. Now it's about grim, grown-up consequences. Dom is wanted by the feds. Brian is a fed. And the story roils with revenge, as both men reunite to take down a Mexican crime lord. There's a high-speed race to the border. There are FBI agents, SWAT teams and helicopters. It's all so serious now. Not that there's anything wrong with that. We just note the change. And we can't help noticing Diesel turns 42 this year and Walker 36. We also note that the guy-centric principles remain the same. The things of beauty in the "F&F" universe? Nitro-jacked speedsters that do horizontally what the Cape Canaveral program does vertically. The six-pack-abbed guys standing next to those cars. And bullet-shaped Corona beers, so men can raise them to victory or -- as one character so grandiloquently puts it -- "to the ladies we've loved and the ladies we've lost." As for the "ladies," guys love 'em, of course. But only the ones with 8 percent body fat need apply. The real love in their lives? Their rides, awesome. And their fellow gearheads. That dude-to-dude affection is unspoken, of course. Guys don't use words any more than they eat celery. But if they did, the sweet exchanges might go something like: Show me your stand-alone fuel management system and I'll show you mine. As for the death-cheating, it's still in full throttle. Take the breath-choking opener, for instance, as Dom and a team of dragsters attempt to hijack the gasoline cargo of a speeding truck. We can practically see oblivion in special-effect relief as a derailed tanker flips, pirouettes in balletic slow motion and hurtles toward Diesel. The specter looms again when Dom and Brian -- in the inevitable mano a mano street race -- screech and career through red lights at busy L.A. intersections, with nary a fender bender. What blows our lizard brains is the possibility of fiery destruction -- this subgenre's equivalent of the money shot. If that somersaulting tanker hits Diesel in his juiced-up car, the explosion's going to shoot out like a nuclear geyser. And if Dom and Brian wipe out in those crowded streets, well, boom baby boom! This is a very good action film. If all you want to is extreme car chases, explosions, and violence; then this is well worth the price of admission. Director Justin Lin does a great job cranking up a franchise on its fourth leg. He tunes down the CGI racing of the last film and brings back the bone crushing metal of street racing. Lin also ratchets up the body count. There are more gunfights and fisticuffs in this film than the first three combined. I can't help but think Vin Diesel has seen his action numbers fade and wanted to come back with a hard-hitting film. This one got my blood pumping and brought back all the action that I loved in the first one. Here's hoping that it keeps on going for a while longer. A hefty blood pumping 4 on my "Go See" scale.
No comments:
Post a Comment