Studio: Universal Pictures
Director: Rob Cohen
Screenwriter: Gary Scott Thompson, Erik Bergquist, David Ayer
Starring: Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Rick Yune, Matt Schulze, Chad Lindberg, Johnny Strong
Genre: Action
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence, sexual content, and language

The Story: Paul Walker stars as Brian, an undercover cop assigned to ferret out the identity of a gang of truck-jackers. He worms his way into the illegal street-racing scene by helping Dominic Toretto (Diesel), the acknowledged alpha-male of the street-racing crowd, out of a tight situation. Brian also worms his way into the heart of Mia (Brewster), Dominic's sister, and gains the trust of the Torettos and their friends. All except for Vince (Matt), Dominic's oldest and until-then most-trusted friend. Vince never believes that Brian is who he says he is, and it's not just because Brian has Mia's attention. As Brian gets to know the Toretto team, he loses his cop's perspective. In a beautiful ironic twist, Brian finds himself in the position of saving Vince's life, although Vince had been ready to kill him earlier. But in order to save Vince's life, Brian has to blow his own cover and alienate both Dominic and Mia. Ultimately, in the best Donnie Brasco tradition, Brian has to make a choice between his job and his friend.

UMSFC Review: On first, second, and even third viewings, The Fast and the Furious comes across as a silly boy-teen flick with lots of hot cars and hot girls (or hot guys, depending on your perspective), long on action and short on plot. It would be more convincing if the script was better and if the titular lead actor was up to the weight of the role. As it is, Walker is completely overshadowed by Vin Diesel, who dominates the movie as much as he does the story. Diesel is so charismatic, in fact, that Matt's splendid performance as Vince goes unnoticed at first. But if you pay attention, you will see that Vince is a three-dimensional character, even though he's not written that way. Matt infuses Vince with a depth and reality that's lacking in most of the other characters. It's all subtle facial expressions, body language, what Vince is doing when he's not the focus of the scene. In the future, this movie will be hailed as Matt's break-out role, and it's worth all the silliness just for that.