Fast and Furious

Just when you thought you'd seen the back of Vin Diesel in The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift, he does it again and pops up in yet another sequel in the critically panned but seemingly popular movie series.

Whilst the previous iterations have focussed directly on street racing and the relationships that seem to coincedentally unfold as a result, this entry in the franchise brings back the core characters from the first movie and yet again, it makes little sense.

The story is very simple; Diesel's (Dom) girlfriend, with whom he pulls off a successful oil tanker heist in the opening scene, is killed by an anonymous street racer and Diesel sees fit to avenge her death, whilst attempting to appear emotional in subsequent scenes.

He is joined again by Paul Walker who plays the undercover cop/CIA/FBI agent Brian O'Conner and once again fails in his acting role, the two lead males co-conspiring to take down the killer, O'Conner's character having a sexual investment in Dom's sister brewing more tension throughout.

One of the key elements lacking in this film is the actual street race. They are set the challenge of winning one in order to rise the ranks and join the eventual killer in capturing a huge shipment in the latter stages of the film, but the director seems to miss the point of the series' basic premise by leaving it up to a desert cave race in order to satisfy the audience's thirst for street-based racing shenanigans.

The film itself is weak. The plotline is a basic relationship copout, as Dom struggles to cope with the loss of his true love (Michelle Rodriguez, caught for drunk driving in the past year, how apt) and O'Conner is reunited with his on-off girlfriend with whom he seems to only visit when Diesel shows up. The acting is shocking; Jordana Brewster playing the role of O'Conner's girlfriend is the worst offender, unable to muster emphatic facial expressions instead opting for the classic Hollywood 'blank face' reaction. Diesel graces us with yet another fine performance, his low monotone sounds do nothing to help the audience understand a single line he delivers and O'Conner seems physically incapable of taking on a serious role in anything he does.

The film's flaws are too frequent to properly dissect but the most annoying one was the director's carelessness is assigning O'Conner's character the role of policeman, CIA agent and FBI agent, three positions no man can ever fulfil in a single year, let alone three consecutive scenes.

Regardless of these flaws, Fast and Furious is a film for the braindead. It requires no thought process whatsoever, something which has come to be expected from the series and as much as i'm a fan of the films, i can't help but feel this entry is one too many.

5/10