The Fast and the Furious

Scruffy, post-pubescent pretty boy Paul Walker (The Skulls) plays an FBI agent who goes undercover on L.A.'s street racing scene to hunt down a gang of morons who routinely hijack 18-wheelers at 80 m.p.h. Buddying up to the stone-cold prime suspect (talented tough Vin Diesel from Pitch Black), O'Connor (Walker) beds the guy's sexy sister (Jordana Brewster, The Invisible Circus) and proves his mettle by drag racing a super souped-up Mitsubishi Eclipse. All the money and effort here clearly went into the over-revved stunt driving--which is undeniably very cool once you get past all the attention-deficit editing, inside-the-engine F/X shots, and acceleration-warped-perspective-cam stunt photography. Still, the picture is really nothing more than a shiny object designed to entertain the simpleminded, and it's a bit of a mystery why director Rob Cohen even bothered filming scenes with dialogue. Not a necessary purchase. (R. Blackwelder)