2001 car movieRating: 13/20
Plot: An undercover prettyboy cop gets himself involved with some illegal street racers with snazzy cars in order to discover who's been hijacking semis. They're also known loiterers!
So, c'mon. Does this kind of street racing really go on? You'd think you'd want a less conspicuous car if you're going to be involved in this sort of thing. This is actually the second time I've watched this movie, and I liked it about the same both times--a little more than I thought I would but not quite enough to understand why there's about twenty more of them. The ultra-modern car race scenes are full of flash, quick zooms, nifty computer-generated shots of the innards of these cars, and good looking people looking all intense. The story's intriguing regardless of how unoriginal it really is or how paperthin and uninteresting the protagonist might be, and things don't really fall apart until the end when too many characters compete for camera time and the stunts completely take over. I did like the bit of moral dilemma that the cop has even though Paul Walker or whatever his name is plays the part like he decided he acting was just about "playing things cool" and making sure your hairs are all in the right place. He's got to have about the most boring face that I've ever seen, too. Believe it or not, I did like Vin Diesel. He's no "Macho Man" Randy Savage or anything, but he's the exact right guy for this role. And he's got a head shape that is difficult to argue with. And at least he's not Chad Lindberg who apparently is channeling Bobcat Goldthwait to play Extraneous Character #4--Jesse. For me, this one fails when it shifts gears (ahh, see what I did there?) and focuses on the romance between the cop and Vin Diesel's sister. This is a movie that just should have stayed in Guy Mode. For sports car enthusiasts or fans of bright blurring colors, this has a lot to offer. No, it's not the most realistic movie that I've ever seen, and you have to sit through some lulls, but I've definitely seen worse action movies. I don't understand cars at all and didn't have any idea what this crew of mechanics and street racers were talking about a lot of the time, so I'm likely not part of the demographic they had in mind when filming this thing.
3 comments:
Jen has a thing for Vin Diesel. Used to bug me until I found out he was a D&D nerd. Uber-D&D nerd in fact, he wrote the intro to the 30th Anniversary D&D coffee table book which I read in it's entirety standing in the stacks at work, getting paid.
The most recent one? Fast Five? Its a fun little movie, with decent action scenes........if you want to continue this Fast and the Furious thing, skip over three...its the worst of them. (Tokyo Drift) Four is okay, but five is quite enjoyable. (The little woman and I got all the films and watched them in a row, before going to the theater to see Five....we wanted to be fully immersed.)
This first one I give a 13 .....the most recent one I give a 15 to.
Larst: Would it bug you if you found out that I had a thing for Vin Diesel?
Maybe I'll see Five some time, Barry, most likely if I ever get another job as a night clerk in a motel and some station shows it. Can't believe you watched all of these in a row. That's a lot of car.
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