Fast & Furious (2009)

User Review

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  TheMovieDiorama

  4 / 10

  Fast & Furious attempts to reboot a dying franchise, but there is limited fuel to reignite the series. Fast & Furious 4. Fast & Fourious. 2 Fast 2 4ious: Tokyo Drift. What a way to reboot a franchise, by literally removing the definite article from its title. Someone give that person a medal because sweet lord it didn't work. Dom joins forces with Brian to bring down a drug cartel in Mexico who happened to have been involved with Letty's death. Wait was that a spoiler? No, it's in the trailer, synopsis and every other critic review, plus everyone has essentially tackled this eternal soap opera by now. After the "masterpiece" that was 'Tokyo Drift', director Justin Lin takes back the series by ensuring Dom and his crew return for some high octane action. Yes? No. Granted, the car chases were well filmed and are always exhilarating to witness but I expected nothing less. It's the franchise's trademark. Whether it be street racing through night time Los Angeles or rampaging through urban Mexico, always thrilling when it's also accompanied by pounding techno beats. It gets my blood flowing. Unfortunately though, that's all this chapter has going for it. These returning characters are portrayed with such monotony and dullness that actually I didn't care for any of them. Diesel can grumble all he wants in a bid to enhance the physicality of Dom, yet he is a boring protagonist. Brian acts as his lap dog and, again, is boring. The antagonist was generic, same can be said about the plot which was ever so reminiscent to 'Point Break'. The acting was functional although Brewster, bless her for having her name on the front cover, was useless at conveying any emotion. The extent of her emotive acting is a smile at the end. Nice! The atrocious visual effects detracted from many of the action scenes, particularly the Mexican border tunnel chase. It resembled something you would find in a PlayStation game, y'know those polygonal cutscenes. It's neither fast or furious, it's just really really dull. Fortunately the franchise picks up substantially in future sequels!

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