| 90 |
Wall Street Journal
Shrewdly conceived, confidently executed and outrageously entertaining.
|
| 80 |
Los Angeles Times
The result is an intensely involving entertainment that can be enjoyed by viewers who scarcely know how their own cars work.
|
| 80 |
Washington Post
Curt Fields
Along with the cast's charm, they provide enough fuel for a fun one (movie).
|
| 80 |
Village Voice
(You) might be charmed by the film's blend of kineticism, car-culture rituals, and hilariously flat-footed dialogue.
|
| 80 |
Salon.com
Loud, trashy, implausible and exciting, The Fast and the Furious may not have much of a brain, but it's definitely got a pulse.
|
| 80 |
Variety
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.
|
| 80 |
LA Weekly
The best cheap thrill to come out of Hollywood in ages -- it's a shot of tonic for the current blockbuster bloat.
|
| 75 |
Boston Globe
Turbo-charged wallbanger with the IQ of a tire iron. But it jumps off the screen with the mindless panache of a good bad movie.
|
| 75 |
Chicago Sun-Times
Not a great movie, but it delivers what it promises to deliver, and knows that a chase scene is supposed to be about something more than special effects.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Something special about it. It's a formula movie, to be sure, but it's Formula One.
|
| 70 |
New Times (L.A.)
The movie may be intellectually sophomoric, dramatically adolescent and morally vacuous, but it's good fun while it lasts.
|
| 67 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
With its machine-gun editing, extremely loud (mostly rap) soundtrack, occasional music-video interlude and overall in-your-face sensibility, it's a movie that's determined to chase anyone past age 30 or so right out of theater.
|
| 67 |
Austin Chronicle
Pure, unadulterated teen exploitation filmmaking at its best -- a heady, rocketing blast of fast cars, loud hip-hop, and a script so cheesy it might as well have “Made in Wisconsin” stamped on it.
|
| 63 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
A massive compendium of youth-movie/pedal-to-the-metal cliches. But man, is it fast!
|
| 63 |
Chicago Tribune
There's some undeniable appeal to watching a well-oiled, built-for-speed machine operating with its pedal to the metal -- even if it's destined to wind up in flames before the finish line.
|
| 63 |
USA Today
High-grade B flick about illegal street racing among gangs in Los Angeles applies the brakes only for the bare minimum of plot injection.
|
| 60 |
Slate
Fearless as these racers are, it's hard to muster enthusiasm for a movie that plays chicken and then swerves about a mile before the collision.
|
| 60 |
Mr. Showbiz
Strictly where the boys are: posing, posturing, and talking engine envy.
|
| 60 |
Chicago Reader
Reece Pendleton
While few of the paper-thin characters register long enough to make much of an impression, Diesel carries the movie.
|
| 50 |
New York Post
Better than any automobile flick put out by Hollywood in a while and, thanks to some genuinely exciting moments, it is easily the most entertaining so far of this summer's big, brainless action movies.
|
| 50 |
Entertainment Weekly
Works hard to be exciting, but the movie scarcely lives up to its title. It could have used a bit of a fuel injection itself.
|
| 50 |
Portland Oregonian
This is not a movie about actors. It's a movie about racing, chasing, chicks and adrenaline -- just what many theatergoers are dying for in a summer dominated by a sweet ogre and a dumbed-down historical tragedy.
|
| 40 |
TV Guide
Tanya L. Edwards
This testosterone-driven, car-crime picture evokes the testosterone-driven, surf-crime picture "Point Break."
|
| 40 |
The New York Times
Neither fast nor furious, this film belongs in the section of the supermarket where blah-white labels and big block lettering denote brandless cigarettes, vodka, crushed pineapple and, in this case, action picture.
|
| 38 |
Baltimore Sun
If it worked, The Fast and the Furious would put viewers in the same position as the policeman protagonist, attracted to speed but appalled by crime. Instead it sentences you to an hour and a half in a high-decibel limbo.
|
| 30 |
Rolling Stone
Rob Cohen, who last directed "The Skulls" --ouch! -- can consider this one another career-killing skid mark.
|
| 25 |
Miami Herald
Drowns in its own noxious fumes. Who knew being bad could be so dull?
|
| 25 |
New York Daily News
Unless you live and breathe exhaust fumes, there isn't much to sustain a viewer through a lame story and dialogue so pathetic.
|
| 20 |
Washington Post
The Fast and the Furious is "Rebel Without a Cause" without a cause. The young and the restless with gas fumes. The quick and the dead with skid marks.
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