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Video: Dragster crime story is fast fun
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 3, 2002
The Fast and the Furious (PG-13)
[Photo: Universal Studios]
Gang leader Dominic (Vin Diesel, left) and undercover cop Brian (Paul Walker) drive the city streets in The Fast and the Furious.
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The underground world of street racing is the backdrop for a high-octane crime story. Paul Walker (Joy Ride) plays an undercover cop investigating robberies fueled by a dragster gang. He gains the trust of the mob's leader (Vin Diesel), mixing romance and nitrous oxide into a combustible lark.
First impressions: "The Fast and the Furious is the guiltiest of movie pleasures, speeding past plot holes and laying creative skid marks with confident swagger. There is no doubt that this is a bad movie. Equally obvious is that Rob Cohen's film is a sloppy bundle of fun.
"Speed thrills. It always has in the movies, from Keystone Kops chases to racing scenes in the otherwise moribund Driven. Cohen uses that basic cinematic element to concoct 105 minutes of meaningless excitement, guessing that he can seduce those viewers who usually demand something deeper. It works. The Fast and the Furious is over before you realize nothing was ever really there."
Second thoughts: A surprising hit in a dismal summer movie season with $144-million in ticket sales.
Rental audience: The MTV crowd, Sunshine Speedway season ticket holders.
The Glass House (PG-13)
[Photo: Columbia Pictures]
Ruby (Leelee Sobieski) and her brother Rhett (Trevor Morgan) find that their guardians are not so nice in The Glass House.
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Orphaned children (Leelee Sobieski, Trevor Morgan) are sheltered by their parents' friends (Stellan Skarsgard, Diane Lane) who aren't as nice as they seem on the surface. The usual cat-and-mouse games ensue.
First impressions: "(Director Daniel) Sackheim, an Emmy-winning television producer and director (The X-Files, Law and Order, NYPD Blue), understands the mechanics of building suspense, and he demonstrates an apt touch with The Glass House. . . . (Sobieski) makes a sympathetic, attractive protagonist. Her transformation from apathy to steely resolve is believable. But the film takes detours into melodrama and exploits viewers' fears about endangered children: It's a direct route to primal terror." (Philip Booth, Times staff writer)
Second thoughts: This film got lost in the post-Sept.11 movie shuffle.
Rental audience: The youth market, social workers taking work home with them.
Rent it if you enjoy: Hansel and Gretel.
What's the Worst That Could Happen? (PG-13)
Burglar (Martin Lawrence) picks the wrong place to rob, a mansion owned by a mobster (Danny DeVito). The gangster catches the crook in the act and steals his lucky ring, setting off a string of presumably wacky situations.
First impressions: ". . . a cobweb of tricky spins and twists that seems like a hip-hop version of Ruthless People. . . . But this is a film in which everyone falls back on his specialty, and it lulls us, so we're not upset by its cruise through a predictable set of cliches. What's the Worst That Can Happen? is a dreary walk down comedy's Memory Lane, with a more updated song score." (Elvis Mitchell, New York Times)
Second thoughts: The worst that could happen apparently did.
Rental audience: Lawrence fans, so the line at the video store should be getting shorter.
Rent it if you enjoy: Taxi reruns, Rerun on the '70s TV series What's Happening.
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