I can't help but agree with Crinderman. This was way better than I expected.

Fast & Furious starts with a crazy vehicular stunt and a teamwork-driven gas heist, which made me wonder if the cool stuff hadn't started early than Fast Five. But maybe it was just proof of concept for what Justin Lin wanted to do with the franchise, because the bulk of the film is a more somber take on 2 Fast 2 Furious, with Paul Walker reuniting with Vin Diesel in a "buddy cop/crook" plot where the bad guy wants drivers, which allows them to infiltrate his organization easily. But there's little of the humor of that previous flick because it's all about revenge for the death of Diesel's lady (coming out of left field and later undone, this movie is weak on connective tissue) so you can't have too much fun. And yet, none of the principals really sell the grief. Lin's direction is energetic, sure, but there's a lot of repetition in the type of car action shown, and you just spend the movie wishing it'd be more like that opener. And future films would be.

needs the subtitle "only original parts"