When a crime brings them back to L.A., fugitive ex-con Dom Toretto reignites his feud with agent Brian O'Conner. But as they are forced to confront a shared enemy, Dom and Brian must give in to an uncertain new trust if they hope to outmanuever him. And from convoy heists to precision tunnel crawls across international lines, two men will find the best way to get revenge: push the limits of what's possible behind the wheel.

The fact that the Fast and Furious franchise is now in their fourth installment isn’t that big of a surprise. The films are like car porn with lots of action and silly chase and driving sequences and sadly that does speak to a lot of audiences. What is more surprising is that the fourth installment is the best film they have made since the first film. Normally by this time and all you have to do is look at series’ like Saw, or Halloween or Police Academy etc etc… and the films have gone completely downhill and should just be releasing straight to video instead of wasting our time at the theatres but that’s not true with Fast and Furious. The action and car chases are just as crisp as the first film but there is some actual character conflict and some story to back the film up something the last two films were missing. Fast and Furious is by no means a masterpiece but it is an enjoyable piece of popcorn fluff that is worth the price of admission.

By the time you reach the fourth installment there is a lot of expectations on a film and Fast and Furious meets almost all of those expectations. You have the fancy cars, you have the high speed chases, you have explosions and wrecks and silly action sequences and you have Vin Diesel growling at everyone around him. Fast and Furious is a formula film and even though it is a formula film they actually manage to pull it off very well. There is nothing wrong with going to the cinema to be entertained and that’s what Fast and Furious does is it entertains you.

I have to admit I spent the first twenty minutes of the film looking to see if they would use the word “The.” They did in fact use the word but the titles for the sequels of the Fast and Furious line are about some of the worst sequel titles ever. I know this doesn’t have any relevance on whether the film is any good but you should still make an effort to not seem silly and inane just from how you title and name your sequels. Fast and Furious is somewhat a rehash of the Fast and the Furious except this time Vin Diesel knows that Paul Walker is a FBI agent and they move forward from them there. The story does add a few twists but it rarely moves out of its comfort zone instead just preferring to sell the movie with its action sequences. This not always a bad thing but sometimes you do wish they could have added a little more to the story and the plot of the film.

There was a time when both Vin Diesel and Paul Walker were supposed to be the next A-list Hollywood stars. Those times are long gone and likely never to come again and for good reasons. What eventually did both stars from becoming A-listers was a series of bad choices in the films and roles they took and the fact that neither is really that good of an actor. The success of the fourth Fast and Furious will likely give them a second shot and keep them around for a few more years but in the end both will disappear once more simply because they are not that great of actors and they will be forced to take the payday and paycheck bad movie roles. They both just play the same characters from the first film, Vin Diesel growls a lot and Paul Walker looks perplexed and lost for most of the film staples of both of their careers. Sadly the actor with the most talent Michelle Rodriquez is not in the film that much due to the story they wrote for the fourth film as she might have added a little more to the mix. But Fast and Furious is what you would expect it to be pure mindless entertainment and you can’t fault it for that.

Grade: B-