There's a point where you have to give up all hope of any sort of involving storyline, or characters with any sort of depth, and just enjoy what is put on display in front of you. The forth film in The Fast & the Furious series is a film that exemplifies exactly why this is important. A film that I normally would have no interest in seeing once again pleasantly surprises me, simply because I knew precisely what to expect.

Fast & Furious is the forth film in it's franchise, and as I watched each entry, from it's initial release in 2001 to Tokyo Drift in 2006, I noticed that, contrary to the traditional effect of sequels, each subsequent release was more enjoyable than the last. Not necessarily better… just more enjoyable in once sense or another. It's too long ago for me to recall why I liked the second film more than the first, but than again, I really disliked the original. The jump in quality to Tokyo Drift was however, very apparent. Director Justin Lin composed the racing sequences, which are all too obviously the heart of the film, with an excitement that both prior directors had lacked. While I don't want to use the term ‘unknowns' or even ‘relative unknowns' in relation to the cast, they had nowhere near the drawing power of the previous casts, and yet, Tokyo Drift was the most successful entry to date (In my professional opinion) thanks to sheer directorial capability.

I was pleased to see that Lin had returned to helm the fourth and hopefully final entry in the series. I probably wouldn't have given the film a chance, otherwise. I'm also somewhat glad I did give it a chance, because it is certainly the best entry in the series, and is once again lifted beyond its formulaic script by some intense racing sequences. Two very intense sequences serve to bookend the film, and I'd be lying if I said that the opening sequence didn't give me high hopes for the rest of the film.

That being said, “The rest of the film…” what can I say about the rest of the film? Not much. I've mentioned it's formulaic, it's also pretty poorly acted, and the brunt of this lies on Walker 's shoulders. I've never been an advocate of Paul Walker's acting abilities, but he has shown me once or twice (Joyride, and Running Scared come to mind) that he can portray an interesting and/or likeable character onscreen. Unfortunately, the flatness of his character is carried directly across from the first two films, and he doesn't have the acting ability to make the role even the slightest bit memorable. Dom (Vin Diesel) is equally as bland, given a singular focus that really isn't that interesting.

Who goes to see a Fast and the Furious movie for plot or characters though? So by that respect, I can say that anyone with an interest in the series should be pleasantly surprised, as the action will rival anything in the previous films . Anyone not interested in the prior films, well… Let's just say this won't serve to change your opinion of the series. Personally, I went into the film fully understanding what the series is, and as a result I got exactly what I expected. In fact the quality of the action sequences was higher than I expected, so, to be truthful, I was pleasantly surprised.