‘Fast & Furious’ With Vin Diesel, Paul Walker is Loud, Boring, Useless Drivel

Rating: 1.0/5.0

CHICAGO – It took eight years to reunite the cast of the original “The Fast and the Furious” - Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, and Michelle Rodriguez. What’s changed in that time? The franchise lost two articles and gained an ampersand. Maybe the next film will simply be called “F F”. I can think of one word that starts with ‘F’ that certainly applies to the latest film - failure.

With dialogue that wouldn’t pass an eighth-grade English class, two lethargic lead performances by a pair of actors who might as well be wearing signs that say “for the paycheck,” and only two real racing sequences, “Fast & Furious” is likely to let down even the most forgiving and hardcore fans of one of the more successful franchises of the ’00s.

Read Brian Tallerico’s full review of “Fast & Furious” in our reviews section.

“Fast & Furious” opens with an exceedingly goofy and illogical sequence in which Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his girl Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) attempt to hijack gas tankers while speeding down a hill. Why they don’t just hijack them when the driver is taking a leak at a rest stop isn’t clear. Prepare to not just suspend your disbelief but destroy it if you want to make it through “Fast & Furious”.

After a tanker goes boom in a CGI effect that looks awkward now and will look ridiculous in just a few years, Dom’s gang decides that things have gotten a bit too dangerous and they need to split up for a while or risk attracting the attention of the feds. Dom and Letty split until he receives a phone call from his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) that she’s been murdered and he’s forced back to the States to avenge her death.

Continuing reading for Brian Tallerico’s full “Fast & Furious” review.

(L to R) Paul Walker and Vin Diesel reteam as agent Brian OConner and fugitive ex-con Dom Toretto for the ultimate chapter of the franchise built on speed.
Photo credit: Jaimie Trueblood and Universal