Fast & Furious; The same old but slightly enhanced formula.

Fast & Furious, the fourth in line of The Fast and The Furious franchise, uses the same old formula that makes the first three movies good and then trimmed off the little things that make them bad.

The story kicks off with the return of some familiar faces, namely, Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his band of brothers – and girlfriend, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) – in an attempt to steal some petrol, in which they succeed. But Dom is a wanted man. And being an honorable wanted man that he is, he left his friends in hope that the cops would come for him instead of them.

Skip a few years later, Dom gets a call from his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) telling him that his beloved girlfriend is murdered. And that is generally the plot of this movie: Dom’s out to find the person responsible for Letty’s death.

And then in come another familiar face, the undercover cop Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker), in a very fast and adrenaline-rushed chase scene. That is, on foot and from rooftop to rooftop. That is one of the most exciting scenes in the movie.

Brian is on a hunt for a drug-dealer, who is actually the same guy that Dom is trying to find. So they teamed up... just like old times.

Fast & Furious is really for fans only. New-comers might not understand the connection between the characters, but the story itself is quite easy to follow, with some surprising twist in the plot.

But it was a disappointment to see that some of the action sequences are done in CGI, namely the tunnel scenes. This really takes away the excitement that the first three movies offer. And also, this movie is way too serious. Instead of the cars and races, we’re focused on Dom’s quest for revenge which could be a drag after a while.

If you just let go of the bad dialogues and some plot holes, and probably the lack of action, Fast & Furious is actually not bad. It’s still fast and still furious, and with a more matured storyline.

But if they’re planning for a sequel, I suggest that they get back to the original theme of the franchise, which is racing and cars.