The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/9/09 Section: Out & About

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There comes a time in an aging action hero's career in which he comes crawling back to his tried and true franchise after stardom begins to lose its luster.

Bruce Willis had "Live Free or Die Hard" (fourth in the "Die Hard" series); Sylvester Stallone had "Rocky Balboa" (the sixth incarnation).

And now, albeit at a more tender age of 41, the unflappable Vin "My Face is a Stone" Diesel revisits underground street-racing in "Fast & Furious," the fourth installment spawned from 2001's "The Fast and The Furious." (That's right, they just dropped the articles and called it a new movie.)

Hey, at least it's not "Pacifier 2: Return of the Tough Guy Babysitter Cliché."

Reprising his role as outlaw racer Dominic Toretto, Diesel is joined by original cast member Paul Walker as his FBI agent counterpart, Brian O'Connor. Michelle Rodriguez (Dom's main squeeze, Letty) and Jordana Brewster (Dom's sister and O'Connor's flame, Mia) also poke their heads in for a paycheck, but their presences amount to no more than 15 minutes screen time combined.


It's all about the boys this time around. Dom and Brian are infiltrating drug cartels and traversing U.S.-Mexico borders to bring down a heroin dealer responsible for Letty's murder.

Billed above the catchphrase, "new model, original parts," this reunion was the re-boot the series needed. It met all the requirements: elaborate chase scenes and gratuitous close ups of female assets. Now everyone can forget that "Tokyo Drift" ever happened.

However, eight years is a long time in the world of movies about chicks and cars, and Diesel and Co. appeared rusty at playing hot, young and reckless. Besides, vengeance rules out all the fun.

Directed by Justin Lin, who helmed "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift," the film opened promisingly with an imaginative oil rig heist gone wrong. But, nothing afterwards lives up to the initial adrenaline rush. Soon plot and acting take a backseat to screeching tires and pouty models pretending to look relevant.

Though, I am impressed by Vin Diesel's ability to recycle the same facial expression for all four emotions his character can muster.

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