What’s new in the world of hot-rod street racing? Now with GPS, *The Fast and the Furious* (2001) has lost two definite articles and swapped in an ampersand for its fourth instalment, *Fast & Furious*, but it’s back with the old, cast-wise.
I’d have preferred some radical modifications — Paul Walker remains more of a grinning skull than he is an actor, and Vin Diesel looks more huffy and bouncer-ish than ever. Still, at least they had the sense to veto original director Rob Cohen, who wouldn’t know a well-shot and edited chase sequence if he was tied to one of the hood ornaments.
Fast & FuriousTaiwanese director Justin Lin does a much better job than you’re necessarily expecting — there’s an impressively crazy opening set piece stealing gas tankers from the back of a speeding carrier in the Dominican Republic. Plus there are plenty of daft plot points to keep us amused — I thrilled to the sight of a rainbow-coloured funeral cortege — and more strikingly non-heterosexual double innuendos that the cast perhaps realise. “I’m one of those boys who appreciates a fine body regardless of the make,” quoth Vin. Did Graham Norton write the script?