Metacritic reviews

Shrewdly conceived, confidently executed and outrageously entertaining.

The result is an intensely involving entertainment that can be enjoyed by viewers who scarcely know how their own cars work.

Along with the cast's charm, they provide enough fuel for a fun one (movie).

Something special about it. It's a formula movie, to be sure, but it's Formula One.

Not a great movie, but it delivers what it promises to deliver, and knows that a chase scene is supposed to be about something more than special effects.

High-grade B flick about illegal street racing among gangs in Los Angeles applies the brakes only for the bare minimum of plot injection.

Fearless as these racers are, it's hard to muster enthusiasm for a movie that plays chicken and then swerves about a mile before the collision.

This is not a movie about actors. It's a movie about racing, chasing, chicks and adrenaline -- just what many theatergoers are dying for in a summer dominated by a sweet ogre and a dumbed-down historical tragedy.

Works hard to be exciting, but the movie scarcely lives up to its title. It could have used a bit of a fuel injection itself.

If it worked, The Fast and the Furious would put viewers in the same position as the policeman protagonist, attracted to speed but appalled by crime. Instead it sentences you to an hour and a half in a high-decibel limbo.