the Informer

Informer Staff Writer

Some movies just seem to beg for poorly made sequels. Vin Diesel, who would seem to be the poster boy for action movie heroes, typically tends to be the center for, in reality, the crappy over budget action flick.,Some movies just seem to beg for poorly made sequels. Vin Diesel, who would seem to be the poster boy for action movie heroes, typically tends to be the center for, in reality, the crappy over budget action flick. And these flicks are the movies that seem to clone themselves in order to make a buck in movie theaters.

It used to only be Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean Claude van Damme and Steven Segal that we could depend on to make the non stop utterly unnecessary action blockbusters, but now it is time for someone new to come along. Vin Diesel, go-to actor for such cookie cutter films as "xXx" and "The Chronicles of Riddick," returns to the overblown acting stage for the next movie in the "Fast and the Furious" franchise, aptly titled, "Fast and Furious." It is directed by Justin Lin, of "Tokyo Drift" fame.

In this film, Vin Diesel reassumes the role of Dominic Toretto, a professional American driver and someone who is wanted for various crimes all over the globe. When the movie starts up, him, his girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and a couple other people in his crew are driving like maniacs in the Dominican Republic and trying to steal gas tankers from this large truck without the driver noticing.

Things are going unnaturally well until the jig is up, and the driver catches on. Once they realize their spot is blown, the entire group of them tries to and then eventually succeeds in getting away, after an unnecessarily close call with a bunch of burning debris.

At this point, Dominic decides he is worried for his girlfriend's safety because the authorities are after him. He leaves her alone for a bit and goes to Panama. Eventually we hear that she is murdered, and he comes back and learns that he can get to the guy that killed her but only if he wins – you guessed it – a street race! Dominic agrees.

Meanwhile, Dominic's ex BFF Brian O'Conner (played by the extremely unimpressive Paul Walker) is in the FBI and is slowly learning who a potential drug smuggler and kingpin may be in the underworld of California. His opportunity to infiltrate the drug dealer's whole syndicate is if he can get hired as a driver by winning this highly elusive and non-televised "street race." Brian agrees.

But what happened?! Apparently the two ex best friends are now bitter rivals, racing against each other for their own personal gain. Dominic, wanted by the FBI for being too badass, and Brian, working for the FBI because he can't street race as well as other people, struggling against each other towards the same goal? Craziness!

Eventually, though, they realize that by teaming up together they can both set things right. This leads them back down a road of redemption. Eventually, though, Dominic is set up and taken in. The movie ends with Brian as well as a number of other people racing towards his prison bus in order to free Dominic. Yawn.

Overall this movie was pretty unnecessary. It was so easy to follow that I actually managed to predict several aspects of the movie early on while not even paying full attention. Sure the racing is cool, and action and special effects are fun, but I felt like the movie tried to step away from the adrenaline and go for the writing and plot elements. The bad part is the pool of actors to choose from didn't bring a whole bunch to the table.

Either way I feel like "Fast and Furious" didn't even entirely accomplish the so little it set out to do, mostly by trying too hard. I give this movie a 6/10.