Fast & Furious

RATING: C

This is the fourth movie of the franchise, and it comes eight years after the first one. But somehow, only now did the people involved realize that the last two movies had suffered from not featuring Vin Diesel (save for a late cameo in the Tokyo Drift) or any of the original characters, save for Paul Walker's character in the second one.

Yes, it only took eight years, but a more proper sequel to the original Fast and the Furious movie finally happened. Vin Diesel and Paul Walker's characters are both finally reunited, and the female co-stars Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez are back too (well, in the latter's case, briefly). And also, the movie brings back part of what was more fun about the first movie; the vehicular action sequences, rather than the actual street racing (Tokyo Drift focused *way* too much on the latter).

This particular plot revolves around Brian O'Conner's and Dominic Toretto's paths crossing as they're both after the same man--Braga, the head of a massive drug cartel. O'Connor is an FBI agent now (how?) and is trying to bring down the cartel, and Toretto is out for vengeance after one of Braga's men murdered someone close to him. That sounds like a pretty simple plot, and it really should be, but it somehow gets convoluted at times. And Braga's an incredibly forgettable antagonist (though to be fair, none of the villains in this series so far have been memorable). 

That said, it's quite a bit more exciting than its predecessors and at least has a *somewhat* more compelling storyline; even though if you've seen Fast & Furious 6 or know what happens in it, it's kind of moot. There's some pretty exciting action sequences; while some of the stunts and what not are pretty doggone improbable (such as driving a car through a gate, off a ledge and onto a busy highway and not crashing), they're not such that they take away too much from what's going on. 

Perhaps what's most impressive is that they actually managed to make the one actual street race in this movie exciting... by making it happen during busy city traffic instead of just being a one-on-one drag race or something like that (yawn). In doing so, they manage to create the film's best scene in an unexpected place. Beyond that, the opening sequence is pretty fun too, as is the climactic one. 

Obviously, there are still issues; as mentioned before, they somehow managed to make the plot a bit more convoluted; and there are lots of little things scattered here and there that just make no sense. (Seriously, how is Brian an FBI agent now?) And beyond the main actors and the return of Han (for about ten minutes), and Gal Gadot, there is no other star power here whatsoever and it's part of why the villains are ridiculously forgettable. 

But really, the biggest issue is, though they're trying hard to make the story more meaningful here, there's just hardly anything of note beyond the action scenes. There's very little levity or humor (although you might be laughing at the ludicrousness of certain stunts). The tone shift does help here, but there's just not a whole lot here to cheer about beyond the fun action scenes. It's oddly mostly empty of memorable content beyond that. If you're going through this series, it's important enough story-wise to the series that it needs to be watched, but don't expect much beyond a bunch of crazy vehicular action sequences and Vin Diesel's admittedly undeniable charisma.