Justin Lin returns from Tokyo Drift and directs the 4th sequel Fast and Furious (yes, “the” is left out). All the players are back from the original with Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster. It’s how you say, “Old models, same parts.” Apparently bringing out the original cast benefited the movie since the weekend opened with $71 million.

The story begins with Dom (Vin Diesel) and gang celebrating their recent hijacking. Things get a turn for the worse when Dom is forced to go into hiding. He gets a call from his sister, Mia (Jordana Brewster), telling him that his main squeeze, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) was murdered. Of course the Dom “The Pacifier” Toretto gets angry and goes back to LA at the scene of the crime to investigate. He doesn’t know who the killer is yet, but he envisions the killer as a black male with a gun. Now that’s what I call racial profiling.

Throughout the movie, we get Dom sad and thinking about Letty and we get to see him frequent her cemetery. There’s a flirtation scene with Dom and his sexy rival, Gisele (played by the lovely Gal Gadot), when she asks him to describe to her the perfect girl. He starts describing Letty with lines like, “She’s 20% angel and 80% devil.” Ok, I get it! You miss her.

Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) is on an undercover mission that sends him to a race where he meets up with Dom to look for Baraga, the mysterious drug lord from Mexico. Baraga is the key to Letty’s death and seems to be Dom’s way out of being a fugitive.

Since this is Fast and Furious, you’ll see many explosions and car chases. My favorite is when Dom, O’Conner and the rest, including Alpa Chino, are racing all around Los Angeles. You end up with dead drivers and a GPS system that reminds me of Grand Theft Auto’s racing missions.

Some scenes in the movie go beyond suspension of disbelief; for example, the tunnel-chase sequence. Near the end, Paul Walker is trying to escape with Baraga through a long narrow tunnel that crosses from Mexico to America. Somehow he’s able to figure out where the fake door and dead end is with super reflexes.

Let’s not forget the scene when Vin Diesel is like the Terminator because he didn’t feel any pain when a random injured goon shoots Vinny in the shoulder, and Vin just looks back like nothing happened and starts to pound on the poor goon.

Even with all the faults, the movie is still fun because of the many muscle and import cars and the chase sequences. You get to see some MMA-style fights with Dom and O’Conner and Jordana Brewster is easy on the eyes (even though she should stay away from acting). It’s fun to see the original cast back, bad acting and all, and see them race each other again.

Grade: C+

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