Fast & Furious

Set after 2 Fast 2 Furious (but before The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift), Fast & Furious follows Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto and Paul Walker’s Brian O’Conner as they reluctantly team up to take on a shared enemy (John Ortiz’s Campos). There’s little doubt that the novelty of seeing the original film’s central cast – in addition to Diesel and Walker, Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez pop up in supporting roles – back in action initially sustains the viewer’s interest, with the over-the-top yet effective set piece that opens the film undoubtedly setting an appropriately energetic tone. It’s just as clear, however, that the almost egregiously familiar atmosphere ultimately becomes far more problematic than one might’ve anticipated, as the increasingly flimsy storyline ensures that the movie’s quieter moments pale in comparison to their high-octane counterparts – which undoubtedly plays a substantial role in Fast & Furious‘ slow-but-steady transformation from an agreeable popcorn flick to a downright irrelevant exercise in tedium. There subsequently reaches a point at which even the film’s unapologetically overblown action sequences prove unable to compensate for the progressively uneven vibe, with Fast & Furious‘ few positive attributes, including an expectedly charismatic turn from star Diesel, ultimately rendered moot by Chris Morgan’s pervasively dumbed-down screenplay.

** out of ****