Formula 1 car racing could be the best interpretation for The Fast and the Furious. Brian (Paul Walker), an undercover officer who looks like an understudy for ‘N Sync’s Lance Bass, and Toretto (Vin Diesel), the hulky speed demon and thief he’s been attempting to get the goods on, are lined up at a stoplight in Los Angeles, eyeing each other like buzzards. They decide to race to the train tracks a quarter mile ahead of them on the spur of the moment.
Reaching them was a train as they gear into 20 seconds of overdrive and the question was: who will be the one to cower and who will be brave enough to press the red button on the dashboard computer that triggers an injection of nitrous oxide fuel, skyrocketing the car in front with the fury of the Batmobile? Both adversaries exchange glances before agreeing to go for the fuel injection with a small nod of the head. They will come out victorious or run into the train and die together
From ”Grand Prix” to ”Heart Like a Wheel” to ”Driven,” innumerable auto racing films have been made, but ”The Fast and the Furious” is a film about California car culture. The tale is organized around ethnic tribal patterns as regimented as anything in an early 1960s delinquent fable, and its characters are young, attractive, hip, and anonymous enough to look like hangers on at a velvet rope party for the film’s premiere. Drag races are held in the desert or along the late-night L. A. walkways, gangland studs with baby faces speeding for the reward of riches, groupies, and their own masculinity.
Toretto in the movie’s most irresistable bad line, says ”I live my life a quarter of a mile at a time,”. ”For those 10 seconds, I’m free. ” He’s enunciating the mindset of the drag racer, albeit the problem with drag racing movies is that those 10 seconds fly by all too rapidly, leaving us with a logy criminal bust melodrama – ”Point Break” on hot wheels — in the case of ”The Fast and the Furious.”
Vin Diesel, who has thick and round muscles, lips, a tightly cropped cranium, and a syrupy basso rumble, stands in stark contrast to all of the perfectly angled cheekbones. Bleaching of Diesel’s charisma was them trying to make him “noble” if not he can be a powerful actor. Michelle Rodriguez’s snarl has been candified, and her presence reduced to a mere twitch of attitude in this, her first major role following “Girlfight,” I’m afraid. ”The Fast and the Furious” tries hard to be thrilling, but it falls short of its title. It may have benefited from some fuel injection as well.
