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| |  Vin Diesel and Paul Walker
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To those who don't know a piston ring from an onion ring, The Fast and the Furious may seem as dumb as a box of Goobers. But to car-cult cretins who grew up on flicks like Bullitt, Two-Lane Blacktop and Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, The Fast and the Furious has enough hot cars, cool crashes and curvaceous cuties to satisfy the aficionados of fender-bending filmmaking. Unlike last year's Gone in 60 Seconds, with its Buckheimer budget and Oscar-winning players, Furious's cast of relatively unknowns has forged a believable, if somewhat thin, plot that doesn't have its audience groaning louder than the engines onscreen.
What there is of a story is about an undercover cop who poses as new kid on the drag strip to infiltrate a "team" of street racers. The cop, Brian Spindler, is portrayed by Paul Walker (imagine Steven Dorf's almost cool kid brother) and the team of street racers are led by cue-ball smooth and twice as hard Dominic Toretto (played by Vin Diesel, quite possibly the Mad Max of the new millennium). Spindler's job is to solve a crime wave of high-speed, big-money truck hijackings before the truckers take matters into their own hands and turn California's freeways into a high-speed steel-cage match.
 Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster
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Complicating matters like the metric system at a penis measuring contest, Spindler learns to respect the way Dominic handles both his fuel-injected wheels and his extended family of misfit mechanics, oddball outcasts, and yummy younger sister Mia. As played by Jordana Brewster, Mia's got the sass and cheekbones of an East L. A. Ali McGraw. "Break her heart and I'll break your neck," is Dominic's brotherly advice to Spindler when it becomes clear his feelings aren't entirely unrequited.
And so the chases begin: Spindler for the truth behind the hijackings, Dominic for the next big rig of ill gotten goods. And the chase, race and escape scenes are where the movie takes things to a near John Woo (director of Broken Arrow, Face Off, Mission: Impossible II) level of metal-twisting mayhem. Supercharged Supras, hot-rod Hondas and extreme Eclipses race through desolate streets at warp speed, all in an effort to settle pink-slip wagers and gangland vendettas.
The diehard muscle-car carnivore in me cheered at the sight of Dominic's "beast" – a full blown late '60s Dodge Charger, one of the few left that the Dukes of Hazard didn't "blow up real good" in the '80s. Though Dominic's Charger doesn't fare much better, what's left of it after a near cataclysmic collision with some train tracks might be road ready by Fast and Furious II.
Speaking of full blown, Michelle Rodriguez is also explosive as Dominic's grease-monkey girlfriend Letty. Rodriguez most recently delivered a TKO performance in Girlfight, a Sundance Film Festival favorite about a teenage girl who takes up boxing and turns her anger management issues into a shot at a real life. Though Letty's looks don't quite compare to Mia's more chiseled profile, Rodriguez is one to look out for, 'cause if you take your eyes off her she's liable to punch your lights out.
Despite Fast and the Furious's bad-ass behavior, bold-faced disregard of local speed limits and double-digit body count, it managed to zoom away from the MPAA with a PG-13 rating. So, finally, there's a summer movie the whole dysfunctional family can enjoy.
June 2001
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