The Fast and the Furious Reviews
ColeSmithey.com
Sure it's a guilty pleasure watching stunt drivers put flashy state-of-the-art streetcars through impossibly daring maneuvers, but it's a happy indulgence nonetheless.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
A gritty and gratifying cheap thrill, Rob Cohen's high-octane hot-car meller is a true rarity these days, a really good exploitationer, the sort of thing that would rule at drive-ins if they still existed.
While few of the paper-thin characters register long enough to make much of an impression, Diesel carries the movie with his unsettling mix of Zen-like tranquillity and barely controlled rage.
Empire Magazine
This is probably the most fun to be had at the multiplex so far this year.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
EmanuelLevy.Com
From first frame to last, this is an unabashedly B-Picture, elevated by A-level stunts but dragged down to C-level characterizations.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Reel Film Reviews
...ultimately entertaining enough to warrant a mild recommendation...
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Time Out
Top CriticIt doesn't matter that we know where it's going, what counts is that Cohen keeps his pedal to the floor and that his actors gun their lines with absolute conviction. Loud cars, fast music: this movie knows exactly what it's about.
Zertinet Movies
A film that stays true to what it tries to be.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Flick Filosopher
It's dumb as a post, sure, but man, does it get your heart pounding and the adrenaline racing through your bloodstream.
Hot Button
I can't hate The Fast and the Furious. It's not a hateable movie.
ViewLondon
High-octane action thriller that does exactly what it says on the tin: fast cars, great stunts, cool characters and a halfway-decent plot, it's B-movie heaven.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Cincinnati Enquirer
Melodramatic, preposterous, excessive -- this movie is all that. Yet it is also magnetically appealing.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Montreal Film Journal
You can almost smell the exhaust and burnt rubber!
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Lawrence Journal-World
Cohen uses speed the way most filmmakers use lighting or color.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Window to the Movies
The film can be regarded from two angles: from the street-racing perspective and the plot perspective. Guess which one matters more? ... The real meat of the movie is in the racing scenes.
Full Review
| Original Score: 7/10
Philadelphia City Paper
One of those movies where you're waiting impatiently for the tedious expository scenes to get over with so you can see more driving.
