Reviews of Fast & Furious, Sugar and Adventureland
Fast & Furious
Directed by Justin Lin
Starring Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez
**
Like a souped-up show car, Fast & Furious is all gleaming surfaces and muscular detailing, but there’s absolutely nothing going on under the hood. Technically the fourth installment in the franchise, this is actually the first direct sequel to 2001′s The Fast and The Furious. As you might recall, Vin Diesel bailed on a follow-up after the surprise success of the original movie to go off and make big-budget pieces of crap like xXx and The Chronicles of Riddick and his fellow co-stars Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster followed him out the door. That left the franchise in the not-so-capable hands of Paul Walker, who sped off to Miami in 2003′s 2 Fast 2 Furious, where he was out-acted by Tyrese Gibson’s biceps, Ludacris’ hair and Eva Mendes’ cleavage. 2006′s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift dropped Walker and moved the action to Japan, where a new crop of racers tried and failed to re-ignite moviegoers’ waning interest in the series.
Walker and Diesel talk shop
As a last ditch effort to keep their cash cow alive, Universal has reunited the entire cast of the first movie for Fast & Furious, which once again takes place in Los Angeles’ underground racing scene. Hiding out in Mexico since the end of The Fast and the Furious, rebel racer Dominic Toretto (Diesel) is compelled to return to L.A. following the death of a close colleague. It turns out that the man responsible is a big-time drug dealer who transports his cargo across the U.S./Mexico border via series of underground tunnels that only the best drivers can navigate. In order to find fresh recruits, the kingpin holds regular drag races where competitors follow a pre-planned route that takes them on open roads, often through heavy traffic. Dom wrangles an invitation to the next race and once again finds himself squaring off against the worst FBI agent in history, Brian O’Connor (Walker), who has once again gone undercover to bust a criminal operation wide open. Now that Dom is back in town, O’Connor has a reason to look up his sister Mia (Brewster), the girl he courted, bedded and dumped several years ago. Meanwhile, her brother finds a new love interest as well in the form of Gisele (Gal Gadot), the drug lord’s right hand gal.
Diesel and Rodriguez in action
Director Justin Lin makes sure there’s plenty of female flesh on display in every frame to tempt our heroes, but as usual they only have eyes for each other and, more importantly, their cars. At least Lin—who also helmed Tokyo Drift—brings a certain level of self-awareness to the movie’s built-in homoeroticism. The first time Walker catches a glimpse of Diesel, for example, he’s framed against an oil derrick in mid-pump. (Interestingly, the former bouncer declines to doff his shirt here, which he did on a regular basis in the first movie, as well as xXx and Riddick. Wonder if all that career downtime left him with a bit of a belly?) From a purely technical standpoint, Fast & Furious may be the best-directed film in the franchise. Lin proved he had visual chops on his indie debut Better Luck Tomorrow and his bigger-budgeted projects have all looked great, even if the scripts were garbage. This may sound like an odd compliment, but Fast & Furious has the look and feel of a feature-length car commercial, which is basically what this series has always been anyway.
Diesel gets back behind the wheel
But here’s the strange thing about Fast & Furious: it’s a racing movie without a lot of racing in it. In fact, the Diesel vs. Walker face-off is the only proper drag race we get. Lin does open and close the movie with two big car chases, but neither one is particularly memorable. As mindless and dramatically stilted as the previous sequels were, at least they gave the audience what they wanted when it came to the behind-the-wheel action. This one seems to take perverse pleasure in defying expectations, which would be fine if it actually had something great to offer besides head-to-head races. Instead, the majority of the 100-minute runtime is given over to a revenge plot that’s so boring, even the characters don’t seem all that interested in who killed who and why. A more accurate title for this wheezy fourth installment in a past-its-prime franchise would have been Running on Fumes or, even better, Slow & Stupid.
Verdict: Skip It
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Also In Theaters
Sugar
Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck
Starring Algenis Perez Soto
***1/2
Stepping up to the plate just in time for Opening Day is Sugar, a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of Major League Baseball’s Caribbean farm system, which has yielded such stars as David “Big Papi” Ortiz. The film follows an aspiring pitcher (Algenis Perez Soto, making a his big-screen debut) from a Dominican Republic training camp to a small-town minor league ballpark in the middle of America’s heartland. Once there, he struggles to adapt to life in a strange land, while also trying to keep his on-field ego in check. As in their acclaimed debut Half Nelson, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck demonstrate a sharp eye for detail and nuance. Unfortunately, they run into third-act trouble, bringing the story to a conclusion that’s logical, but not exactly satisfying. Call Sugar a solid triple instead of an out the park home run.
Verdict: See It
Adventureland
Directed by Greg Mottola
Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Martin Starr, Bill Hader
***
Greg Mottola’s follow-up to Superbad is less riotously hilarious than that modern comedy classic, but at least it has its heart in the right place. When his affluent family falls on hard times, an overeducated college grad (Jesse Eisenberg) takes a low-paying job at a local amusement park, where he falls for a gorgeous fellow wage slave (Twilight’s Kristen Stewart) with a messed-up personal life. Although completely predictable, the likable cast—particularly scene-stealers Martin Starr, Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig—make this a smooth ride.
Verdict: Rent It
Gigantic
Directed by Matt Aselton
Starring Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel, John Goodman
*1/2
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a dorky mattress salesman (Paul Dano) with dreams of adopting a baby from China cozies up to the eccentric daughter (Zooey Deschanel) of a wealthy artist (John Goodman). Sounds wacky and fun, right? Actually, it’s neither. Instead, Gigantic is…well, a gigantic bore. Writer/director Matt Aselton liberally borrows from Wes Anderson and Hal Ashby, but doesn’t possess the former’s technical skill or the latter’s rapport with offbeat characters. Don’t feel guilty if you bail on the film after the first half-hour—trust me, you won’t be missing anything.
Verdict: Skip It
Lifelines
Directed by Rob Margolies
Starring Jane Adams, Josh Pais, Joe Morton
*
Attention indie filmmakers: please, please, please avoid turning your movies into 90-minute therapy sessions. Rob Margolies somehow managed to rope an impressive ensemble of skilled actors (including Jane Adams and Joe Morton) into appearing in his laughable debut feature, about a seemingly ordinary suburban family whose dark secrets are exposed in an extended appointment with a much-too-patient psychiatrist. A deeply unpleasant viewing experience, Lifelines reaches its nadir in the final fifteen minutes when Margolies makes room for a final plot twist that manages to be both deeply stupid and horribly offensive. Movies like this give independent cinema a bad name.
Verdict: Skip It
