Fast & Furious is the fourth installment in an already lackluster series. Looking back at the series, the first one is truly the only enjoyable. Where does this rank with the other Fast and Furious films? It’s undoubtably better than the terrible 2 Fast and 2 Furious, but it’s not even on level with the somewhat decent Tokyo Drift. It’s a forgettable action movie that isn’t even entertaining in the realm of “dumb fun.”
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Dominic Torreto (Vin Diesel) is out for revenge, looking to avenge his girlfriend Letty’s (Michelle Rodriguez)
death. Dominic is still the hard headed man on the run. Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) is now working as a federal agent, who is trying to take down a drug cartel. The man Brian is trying to take down, is the same one Dominic wants to kill. Brian and Dominic, of course, end up having to work with each other. They’re the odd couple. Dominic still hasn’t gotten over Brian’s backstabbing, but he’ll still work with him to get his revenge.
Yes, the story does sound generic, but that’s because it is. No one expects anything more from a Fast and Furious movie, but this one is laughably predictable. Once one gets all the character details in the beginning it’s rather easy to predict the forthcoming events and character fates. The script that accompanies the film does nothing to help. The lines are filled with the worst kind of cheese, limiting every character to be dull. It also takes itself far too seriously at times, it’s as if they didn’t realize how preposterous the movie was. When the movie tries to pull at the heart strings or try to be more than just a dumb action movie, it’s just plain bad. This is a prime example of how bad things can go when an action movie loses a sense of self-awareness. Then again, the Fast and Furious franchise is really all about how cool the cars look and how much cleavage the (hot) woman flash, but that still doesn’t make this a good movie.
There is still the trademark of fast cars and beautiful woman which will most likely satisfy the die hard fans of the Fast and Furious mythology. Unfortunately, the races which should be the highlight of the film, were are rather dull and nearly incomprehensible. They add nothing new and car races have been handled far better in past films, even the last film threw in drifting. Race after race is a pure rehash of what has already been done before and it’s shown in a choppy fast cutting fashion. There’s only one race scene that takes place on unclosed roads which is rather fun. It was easy to follow and entertaining.
Vin Diesel is just being Vin Diesel. His character arc is to just look mad while keeping his muscles flexed. It’s impossible to take him seriouslye, as he just comes off like a younger Jean-Claude Van Damme. He’s cheesy, but not in the fun way. When watching the film one can only feel bad for Paul Walker (Running Scared). He fairs slightly better than Diesal, but their is more potential in him then just paying these hollow and forgettable roles. If you don’t believe that then go watch Running Scared where he demonstrates he is more than just a B-level action. The only bright spot is Michelle Rodriguez (Resident Evil), but she’s mostly wasted. Her only real purpose in the movie is basically just to die, so then we can just see Vin Diesel go on his boring rampage. She has a fun screen presence that is
This isn’t a terrible action movie, there is still an unrealistic amount of hot woman, literally all over the place in this. There was also that insane street race and sometimes the film becomes hilariously bad. There’s plenty of cheese which, on a comedic level, is somewhat satisfying. With that said, this is still a quite dull and forgettable movie about cars and one note characters.