Has this ever happened to you? You tell someone that you're going to see a movie. They ask you why you want to see it. The only answer that you can come up with is, "It looks good." We've all said it. But, do you realize just how baseless that answer is? There must be some specific reason which compels people to leave their homes and venture out to see a particular film. In the case of Fast & Furious, I would love to know what compelled the American viewing public to see this movie to the tune of nearly $71 million dollars on its opening weekend. Is street racing still that popular? Is it Vin Diesel? Is there anything about this movie that justifies that sort of number?

Fast & Furious is a direct follow-up to the 2001 vehicle The Fast and the Furious, and it sort of ignores the two intervening sequels. Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) the street-racer cum thief has relocated to the Dominican Republic in order to escape prosecution in the United States. He and his girlfriend, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), are still performing high-speed robberies. However, Dom decides that he and Letty should part. She returns to the U.S. and is murdered. Risking his freedom, Dom returns to Los Angeles to investigate. Meanwhile, FBI agent Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker), who once went undercover as a street racer in order to break up a crime syndicate, is investigating a Mexican drug lord who recruits street racers to transport his products. Brian goes undercover (again) and gets invited to a recruitment race. He's surprised to see Dom there. They decide to work together -- Brian to stop the drug trafficking, and Dom to find Letty's killer. Both will need their driving skills to survive.

This results in a movie which takes itself far too seriously. Again, were most audience members in line thinking "I want to see some cool cars!", or was it, "I hope to see a brooding drama." Again, perhaps this was a conscious decision to elevate the movie above its predecessors, but we've got the death of a major character, drug cartels, and attempted executions. Of course, this only leads to brooding by Diesel and Walker.

Taken all together, what is the result of this overwritten and dark movie? It's laughable. I'm not a street-racing enthusiast, so this movie isn't aimed at me, and I didn't like The Fast and the Furious, but I was still disappointed in this weak entry. This is made all the worse by the fact that the opening scene is very well done and undeniably exciting. Unfortunately, it's the high-point of the movie. Following this stunt-filled, high-adrenaline scene, the movie begins to take itself far too seriously and quickly loses momentum. At 107 minutes, the movie is far too long and even the most patient viewer will begin to count the minutes between racing scenes. And after all of this, the movie has a down ending.

Again, I realize that Fast & Furious isn't aimed at me, but I was lost from the title. You simply realize the two occurrences of the word "the" from The Fast and the Furoius and you've got the name of a sequel? How does that work? Truth be told, I admire the movie for trying some different things. There's only one true street-race and the idea of a smuggler using racers as mules is an interesting one. Director Justin Lin can certainly shoot an action scene, but he's lost during scenes. And that's what kills the movie. The film would have been much better (and at least somewhat fun) if it had left the drama in the dust.

Fast & Furious lives life a quarter mile at a time on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Universal Studios Home Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc offers a VC-1 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 30 Mbps. The image is very sharp and clear, showing virtually no grain and no defects from the source material. The colors look fantastic and the image is well-balanced -- never overly dark or bright. The depth, most notably in the desert scenes, is very good, as is the level of detail. The image simply has a superior crispness to it which DVD can't match. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 4.5 Mbps. This track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. In short, the audio here is quite impressive. As one would imagine, the car chases/races sound great. The audio in these scenes fills the speakers and really puts the viewer in the driver's seat. The stereo effects are outstanding, as the cars move from one side of the screen to the other. Similarly, as they pass us, the surround sound is well-placed and strong. The roar of the engines and some explosions excite the subwoofer. Overall, a solid presentation.