The Fast and the Furious (2001)

Not only does this film glorify the irresponsible and potentially deadly hobby of illegal street racing, it also seems to make an attempt to legitimize it, leaving me with nothing but contempt for The Fast and the Furious.

Essentially a shallow repackaging/rip-off of the 1991 film Point Break, The Fast and the Furious boasts “high-octane action and excitement” but, in reality, rarely manages to make it out of first gear. Paul Walker stars as a twenty-something undercover cop trying to break into the local street racing culture in hopes of uncovering the mastermind behind a series of semi truck robberies on local highways.

Walker makes himself look like a rookie fool by racing the local hotshots with his car at stake and losing, though he tried his darndest to win. Fortunately, a “surprise” police raid causes everyone to flee, allowing Walker to save one of the street racing gang leaders, played by Vin Diesel. Despite looking like a total stooge and the all-too-convenient raid and getaway, Walker is admitted into Diesel’s inner circle. One of Diesel’s gang sees right through Walker’s ruse but Diesel doesn’t believe it.

Walker proceeds to fall in love with Diesel’s sister and comes to embrace his new found “friends” and their lifestyle. This clouds his vision to the fact that Diesel is indeed the one behind the highway robberies and he spends much of the movie trying desperately to find evidence that one of the other gang leaders is behind it.

In the end, Walker has to make a choice. After a highway robbery goes awry and one of Diesel’s gang is seriously hurt, Walker exposes himself as a cop to get medevac for the injured. With Diesel’s operation exposed and cops on the way, Walker does the only logical thing left to be done: he lets Diesel flee to Mexico. Walker puts faux friends and a lifestyle that isn’t his above his duties as a police officer and lets the bad guy get away.

So, aside from the anti-establishment undertones, what is wrong with this movie? For starters, the writing sucks. I understand that much of the dialog is meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but it’s still woefully written tongue-in-cheek. Groan worthy lines like “You look tired, I think you should go upstairs and give me a massage” and “I live my life a quarter-mile at a time” are just a few examples of how stale and out of touch the script is.

The actors do their best to deal with the horrible prose they are force fed, but stale or overblown performances prevent the acting from achieving anything above mediocrity. Very few, if any, of the characters seem genuine. Most are built out of stereotypes and conventions that have grown to be more irksome than appreciable. Walker’s eagerness to be playing his first bona fide leading role and the lousy script make his character completely unbelievable and easy to pick out as an undercover cop. Vin Diesel appears to either have just been acting like his normal self or he decided to adopt his character’s attitude in real life. It’s hard to tell, but either way he’s a flat character and it’s hard to imagine a guy who grew up on the streets and working with cars to be such a genius at crime.

The rest of the cast is filled out with actors and actresses who have also had very little experience with main or even supporting roles. There’s a lot of raw talent in The Fast and the Furious, but it doesn’t appear that director Rob Cohen spent much time helping the young cast figure out their characters. All this untapped and unfocused talent is a lot to sit through for 100 minutes. I’d like the think the cast (excepting Vin Diesel of course) will go on to have bright careers when they get the proper amount of direction.

Some of the chase scenes and visual effects are a bit on the silly side. I mean, do we really need a CGI shot that takes us from the engine block back through the exhaust pipe? I think not. The use of computer inserted ‘speed lines’ to make viewers think that the cars are traveling really fast are preposterous. These effects make the cars look like they are traveling much faster than they really could under the same conditions in real life.

Also, some of the stunt work, while impressive looking, is very deceiving. Some of the race scene and wrecks are very well choreographed and executed, but rely on visual trickery and many modifications to pull off. For instance, very few cars are low enough to the ground to drive underneath and a semi truck’s trailer. Even one that is low enough would be obstructed by the spare tire holder and other parts that hang below the bottom of the trailer. The trucks used have raised trailers, which are easy to spot if you know where to look. It all looks ‘cool,’ but it’s not realistic.

And that’s the biggest problem with The Fast and the Furious. Much of it is just too unrealistic to keep my mind from suppressing my doubt for very long. The dialog is phony, the acting is stale and the plot is a stretch. The way they rob the trucks is really truly laughable and probably wouldn’t work.

At its heart, The Fast and the Furious is a guilty pleasure movie but it really turns out to be guilty of poor execution and being an almost undetectable rip-off. Just as Point Break sparked an interest in surfing back in the early 90s, The Fast and the Furious sparked interest in illegal street racing, a decidedly more dangerous and less athletic pursuit.

Thanks for nothing.

RATING: 1.5 out of 5

Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)

Sort of a West Coast version of To Kill a Mocking Bird, Snow Falling on Cedars focuses on the Washington State trial of a man of Japanese descent during the early 1950s, when Americans (particularly on the West Coast) were fearful and mistrusting of anything Japanese since World War II. The stage is set pretty clearly and the odds are stacked against him.

Ethan Hawke is the town newspaper editor who struggles with his own bias while covering the case. As a boy he was in love with a girl who became the accused man’s wife but he lost an arm fighting the Japanese in the war. Now he finds himself convinced that the accused is innocent and must work against the town’s racism in order for justice to be upheld.

A bit slow from time to time, this film doesn’t quite have the back-story and side plots that made To Kill a Mocking Bird work, but the rigorous pursuit of justice is worth noting. It also doesn’t help much that the film's cast is made up almost entirely of actors known for their supporting roles. Otherwise, it’s a pretty good underachiever.

RATING: 3.25 out of 5