AltWeeklies Wire » Movies+TV » Reviews

Slow and Hesitant: Car Porn Franchise Stalls Out

Universal Pictures

By Cole Smithey
City Pulse | March 30, 2009
Chris Morgan (the screenwriter on The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift -- 2006) is to blame for a script that runs more like a '70s Ford Pinto than the hopped up muscle cars burning rubber onscreen. Original cast members Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, and Michelle Rodriguez are reunited with Crayon exposition about romantic and ethical mistakes they've made, as well as sticking plot points culled from the same coloring book. Bad-ass undercover cop Brian O'Conner (played by Paul Walker) is hot on the trail of an anonymous Mexican drug cartel leader who has also attracted the heat-seeking revenge of the more bad-ass ex-con Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel). O'Conner and Toretto reluctantly team up to trap the elusive kingpin known only as Braga. The plot holes are as big as the mountain tunnel that contains two of the film's less than satisfying car chase scenes. For such a simple action/adventure template, the filmmakers fall down on the job at every turn. There's no sustained suspense, and only a few moments of truly exciting car racing to be had in a movie with a narrative flat line that substitutes for a dramatic arc.

The movie opens with our trusty gang of highway bandits Dom and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), and another duo of outlaw crew members, in hot pursuit of a tractor trailer hauling two rolling tanks filled with gasoline on a paved two-lane road somewhere in the Dominican Republic. Athletic tough girl Letty rides on the hood of a chase car in order to jump onto the gas truck and break its hitch after connecting the tank's back end to the reverse-driving theft car that will take off in the opposite direction with a few thousand gallons of gas. The idea is so outlandish that you can't help but be transfixed by the ridiculous danger being flaunted onscreen. And then it happens; the treacherous mission has taken too long and the tractor-trailer is fast approaching a steep downgrade that promises a grand explosion. The gutsy sequence delivers on the exact kind of roller-coaster popcorn fun audiences expect from the franchise. The key problem with the movie is that it never returns to the same level of excitement.

The nearest thing to it comes during a street race between drivers auditioning for the evil Braga's team of smugglers, of which Dom and Brian are a part. The two rival roadrunners go head to head through busy L.A. streets while other racers get mangled into chrome and rubber sandwiches at regular intervals. Here, director Justin Lin shows his naivete about the essential elements of creating exciting car chases. A review of William Friedkin's French Connection and To Live and Die in L.A. could have informed the filmmakers about where to put the cameras, and the importance of overturning car chase cliches, something that was built into the nature of Lin's The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift installment where the unconventional style of driving added exceptional pizazz. Also disappointing is the early departure of Michelle Rodriguez's hot tempered character from the story. Letty's lusty personality is an early focal point, and seems to promise something the writer has no intention of delivering on, that lightning-in-a-bottle Rodriguez magic.

(Universal) Rated PG-13. 107 mins. (C-) (Two Stars)
Tags: Fast & Furious, Justin Lin, action movies
Contact for Reprint Rights
  • Address: 1905 E. Michigan Avenue, Lansing, MI 48912-3011
  • Phone: (517) 371-5600
www.lansingcitypulse.com