The Fast and the Furious

The Fast and the Furious is about Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker), a Los Angeles police detective and auto racing enthusiast who has been asked to infiltrate a street racing gang so that the police can arrest the drivers who have been hijacking cargo trucks. To accomplish this, Brian starts hanging out at a restaurant run by Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster), who is the sister of Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), a top street racing driver and leader of the gang. At the same time, Brian has landed a job in a local racing store that sells nitrous oxide boosters and other equipment to soup up racing cars. While Dominic and some of his cronies are suspicious of O’Connor and try to drive him away, he keeps coming back and Mia soon takes a romantic interest in Brian. Eventually Dominic warms to Brian also, because of his enthusiasm and desire to learn about racing but especially after he rescues Dominic from a police dragnet.

Besides Dominic’s gang, Brian is also suspicious of an Asian gang led by Johnny Tran (Rick Thune). There is bad blood between the rival gangs, due to some past incidents, and when Brian tells his task force to send in a swat team on the Asian gang things get worse, and violence breaks out between the two gangs. When the SWAT team bust turns out to be just that, because the Asian gang is not the gang responsible for the hijackings, Brian’s police supervisors put the pressure on him to bust Dominic’s gang, which they believe are the culprits. Now Brian is torn between his new found relationships with the Torettos and his sworn duties as a police officer. Without spoiling the story, suffice it to say that the film concludes with some spectacular racing and stunt scenes.

The Fast and the Furious has something more than just racing action and spectacular stunts. You feel that you are getting a glimpse of the underground racing world of southern California, just beyond the law but right on your local streets. This world has its own rules and ways of acceptable behavior, which are followed throughout the storyline. The film’s action is well paced, and the script is intelligent enough to include some character development so that you begin to care about Dominic, Brian, Mia, and their cohorts. Vin Diesel gives a superb performance as the racing driver overlord; he has an onscreen presence here that reminds you of Telly Savalas. Although some critics rap Paul Walker for his acting abilities, this is the perfect kind of role for him, a young man starting to mature and grapple with what true morality means as he walks a thin tightrope between the worlds of undercover racing and undercover police work. And the ending isn’t predictable like a typical formula movie would be. Director Rob Cohen has given the film a bright look and fast pace that is somewhere between fantasy and reality, and there is great stunt work and some terrific racing scenes throughout the film. “Fast and furious” is a good description of what this movie is like. If you like racing films, this is a must-see.

Paul Walker in his role as Brian Walker wears black low cut chucks at the beginning and in the final scenes of The Fast and the Furious. The best chucks shots are when you see Walker driving his race car in a scene at the opening of the film, and when he goes to check on a motorcyclist who has crashed. The best chucks scene is when Brian goes to rescue one of the hijackers gang members who is entangled and trapped on the outside of the big semi truck that the gang was trying to hijack.

The Fast and the Furious. (2001) Paul Walker, Vin Daniel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Rick Yune.
Directed by Rob Cohen. Categories: Drama, Action/Adventure, Crime/Mystery.
ChucksConnection Rating: MPAA Rating: PG-13

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