In Point Break (1991), a federal agent (Keanu Reeves) infiltrates an extreme sports gang (skydiving, surfing, etc.) suspected of robbing banks, gets close to their leader (Patrick Swayze), woos the leader’s girl, and ultimately starts liking the ‘bad guys’ better. For Furious, substitute cop for federal agent, illegal street racers for extreme sports addicts, hijacking semis for robbing banks, and the leader’s sister for his girl. Even the end of this retread varies only slightly.

Vin Diesel, even more so than Swayze before him, steals the show from the ‘good guy,’ Paul Walker, who doesn’t look like Reeves, but seems to be channeling him. Close your eyes and listen to him…it’s creepy.

The protagonist beds the girl under false pretenses (stellar role model!), but after the deception is revealed, convinces her his feelings were real. Just as clichéd are the many implicitly condoned* destructive behaviors going on throughout the film. Let’s hope the kids are smart enough to see through that. Assuming they can, this is not a total waste. Cohen wisely maximizes the slick car chases and the star power of Vin Diesel, but wastes the talented Michelle Rodriguez (Girlfight) and cutie Jordana Brewster. Oh well. Cool racing scenes.

Word count: 200

*The DVD starts with a disclaimer, but the fact that they felt the need to include the disclaimer says it all.

Copyright 2002 by Toby Baldwin

Year: 2001
Director: Rob Cohen
Writers: Gary Scott Thompson, Erik Bergquist, and David Ayer, based on a magazine article by Ken Li
Running time: 106 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for "violence, sexual content and language," but even more egregious is the way it glamorizes and/or trivializes all the wrong things.