The Fast and the Furious [DVD] [2001]

This is one of those films that gets panned by the critics but draw me to watch them over and over. Some find it a bit shallow and very "Hollywood". If however you are into the cruising/modifying/street racing scene you will love this.

The basic premise is this:
A few articulated lorries carrying high-value goods have been knocked off by the same gang, driving black honda civic's with green neon lights underneath. The FBI suspect that the culprits are involved in the street-racing scene and have a name in mind.

Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) is chosen to become a street racer and mingle with Dominic Torreto's (Vin Diesel) gang to find out who is behind the hijackings.

Brian begins to discover the true depth and integrity to Dominic's gang, leaving him to question who's side he should be on.

OK, its no Thespian play, the script won't win any awards, but that really isn't the point. Its a banquet of big stunts, petrol and testosterone. Plenty of fast cars and fast driving. One of my favourites.

This is a good film that has spawned many others like it that arn't as good.This is the original and best.

The acting is good for alot of new actors and actresses and it has a good storyline,but the stars of the show are the cars.Brilliant racing scenes and the camera work is fantastic with a few new special camera views thrown in.
All-in-all it's a good film that has a story to it as well as fast cars.

Testerone-fuelled fun, The Fast and The Furious shares a lot with it's early 90's predecessor - dumb cop drawn into a sexy world of crime and adrenaline, mysterious, charismatic leader taking said cop under his wing, decoy criminal (rival surfers in Break, Rick Yune's remarkably named Johnny Tran (Chan apparently being far too stereotypical a name) in Furious) - the list goes on. But don't let it be said that this is a complaint.
As a testerone-fuelled thrill stacked with amusing dumb one-liners, Point Break was a high point in the genre, as is The Fast and The Furious. The action sequences break new ground in the depiction of speed on film, Cohen's camera crash zooming and flash cutting so fast that the he literally creates a blur. As such, the action set-pieces are undoubtably the high point, stacked with everything the red-blooded Millenium man could want - fast cars, faster girls, and men we envy for being so damn cool it hurts (mainly for the fact that they're surrounded by the first two). Hell, its even got a cameo for pint-sized rapper Ja Rule.
It does fall a little in the acting stakes - but no-one was really expecting Oscar-calibre work here. Walker is amiable enough as Keanu 2000, and Brewster puts her dusky charms to good use in what is pretty much a nothing role. Mention should be given to the impossibly square-jawed Rick Yune as Tran, who comes close to being noticeable on screen against Diesel, but in the end is overmatched. Undoubtedly the star of the film, (in fact, it comes close to stalling whenever he's not on screen) Diesel is a hulking presence, full of greasepaint cool and barely restrained violence.
Either way, The Fast and The Furious remains one of the best car films around, absolutely certain to make you race the next man fool enough to pull level with you at the traffic lights. One for the lads and a Friday night, and none the worse for it.