Rating of
2/4
"The Fast And The Furious" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 05/11/12
Strong but silent tough guy Vin Diesel's life is the envy of every frat boy; by day he bonds and butts heads with white men who call each other "dawg" and say things like "aiight" and "sup?", by night he races flash cars with every racially stereotypical homie in the "hood" followed by all-night parties full of Baywatch extras who will get it on with each other on demand. Then along comes Paul Walker to throw a 3/4 inch torque wrench into the works by being torn between his duties as undercover cop and loyalty to his new playmates. It's easy to take the piss out of the plot of this kind of formulaic actioner, but at least it included one, unlike the similar but even more lame-brained Gone In 60 Seconds. It uses the usual Hollywood devices of having "good" bad guys (ones who have a good, piano-accompanied reason for bludgeoning a man into the hospital and intending to only do "one last job") to root for against the "bad" bad guys (nasty Asian gangsters who uzi goodhearted dimwits to death.) The end scene is especially stupid; just for a moment I actually thought Diesel and Walker were going to kiss! But at the end of the day, all this is just an excuse to hang exciting car chases on, and Cohen's efficient direction produces them in spades with some spectacular stunt work and great sense of speed. A dim-witted but very slick popcorn movie that does exactly what it says on the tin.
