Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, Matt Schulze
Directed by: Rob Cohen
Running time: One hour and 47 minutes

It has been said that The Fast and the Furious has guilty pleasure written all over it - and rightly so.

It is a slick high-speed extravaganza that delivers more satisfaction than, say, Gone in 60 Seconds. It does this by paying more attention to its characters and putting the breathtaking (and breathtakingly illogical) action sequences into a credible perspective. It also has a super-cool antihero (Vin Diesel) who blurs almost every loophole in the committee-written screenplay.

The film is based on an article, which immerses the reader into the world of street racing. It continues Hollywood's love affair with the fashionable, semi-legal, high adrenaline entertainment indulged by muscular, handsome men abetted by gorgeous female accessories (I'm not being sexist, they get treated as such).

Brian (Paul Walker), a young man who is more handsome than muscular, tries to enter the world of street racing star Dominic (Vin Diesel) who is more muscular than handsome. Naturally, Brian is treated to some cheerful humiliations, the most painful of which is losing a race to Dominic. Luckily for him, he is on hand to help Dominic evade the police after the race and a friendship is born. By the time the screen tells us that Brian is an undercover cop, we have already guessed it, but no matter.

It turns out that street racing is quite heavy on the pocketbooks of those who practice it and the FBI have linked Dominic's all-conquering gang with a series of spectacular truck hijackings. Brian is the one to test their link. He undertakes a terminally strange approach - he starts to radiate charm in the general direction of Dominic's sister Mia (Jordana Brewster), provoking a dubious blessing from the brother. Nevertheless, Brian soon becomes Dominic's protégé, while developing genuine respect from him. Needless to say, the FBI is dead right and there you are with an agent who finds himself in a "conflict of interests" situation.

The ending is more than a bit dubious. It is mildly entertaining to see that the buildup for a tragic finale is scrapped at the last minute for an open ending which has the promise of a sequel. It is also a shade frustrating and exemplary of how the studios are doing business these days.

The strange thing is, despite its lucid drawbacks and the soulful meditations it might evoke about the state of filmmaking, the movie is effective. It is simple and derivative and proud of it.

Fans of Kathryn Bigelow's Point Break will find startlingly consistent parallels between the two films - just swap high waves and surf for highways and cars. Point Blank lifted Patrick Swayze to the zenith of his brief stardom and acquainted the mainstream with Keanu Reeves. The Fast and the Furious will do both for one actor - Vin Diesel. He was the savior-thug in Pitch Black, the star broker in Boiler Room, and the steely voice of The Iron Giant and was always impressive. He possesses a genuinely intimidating screen presence, which commands attention and fearful respect from the audience, as seen in this movie. On top of that, he manages to give flesh to his screen character, making it look like a believable human being and not, well, a screen character.

It's a safe prediction that you'll remember him longer than you'll remember this film, but there's still something that allows The Fast and the Furious to qualify as a success.