Arguably, there's something poignant in the sight (you couldn't say "spectacle") of Vin Diesel delivering the American fantasy of muscle-car omnipotence just as Detroit is being stretchered into the ICU. Inarguably, this fourth entry in the franchise that began with The Fast and the Furious (2001) is a bloated, incoherent, 147-minute snooze. For what it's worth: hot-rod outlaw Diesel grudgingly teams up with lawman Paul Walker to take down a Mexican drug lord. Director Justin Lin (once an indie darling with Better Luck Tomorrow) opens with a half-decent action sequence, but it gives way to murky nonsense combining CGI abuse with the worst sort of Bourne plagiarism. Stay home and huff gas instead.
This article appears in Apr 8-14, 2009.