Tuiasosopo, Peter Navy

The Fast and the Furious

A guilty pleasure with excess horsepower, The Fast and the Furious efficiently combines time-honored male fantasies (hot cars, hot women, hot action) into a vacuous plot of crystalline purity. It's trash, but it's fun trash, in which a hotshot Los Angeles cop named Brian (Paul Walker) infiltrates a gang of street racers suspected of fencing stolen goods from hijacked trucks. The gang leader is Dom (Vin Diesel), ex-con and reigning king of the street racers, who lives for those 10 seconds of freedom when his high-performance "rice rocket" (a highly modified Asian import) hurtles toward another quarter-mile victory. Racing is street theater for a lawless youth subculture, and Dom is a star behind the wheel--charismatic, dangerous, and protective toward his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster), who's attracted to Brian as the newest member of Dom's car-crazy team.

Director Rob Cohen treats this like Roman tragedy for MTV junkies, pushing every scene to adrenaline-pumping extremes; when his camera isn't caressing a spectrum of nitrous oxide-enhanced dream machines, it's ogling countless slim 'n' sexy race babes. The undercover-cop scenario cheaply borrows the split-loyalty theme perfected in Donnie Brasco; a rival Asian gang adds mystery and menace; and digital trickery is cleverly employed to explore the fuel-injected innards of the day-glo racecars. It's about as substantial as a perfume ad, but just as alluring, and for heavy-metal maniacs of any age, Diesel's superblown '69 Charger proves that Detroit muscle never goes out of style. --Jeff Shannon

Street Fighter -- Collector's Edition

The Fast and the Furious (Widescreen Tricked Out Edition)

A guilty pleasure with excess horsepower, The Fast and the Furious efficiently combines time-honored male fantasies (hot cars, hot women, hot action) into a vacuous plot of crystalline purity. It's trash, but it's fun trash, in which a hotshot Los Angeles cop named Brian (Paul Walker) infiltrates a gang of street racers suspected of fencing stolen goods from hijacked trucks. The gang leader is Dom (Vin Diesel), ex-con and reigning king of the street racers, who lives for those 10 seconds of freedom when his high-performance "rice rocket" (a highly modified Asian import) hurtles toward another quarter-mile victory. Racing is street theater for a lawless youth subculture, and Dom is a star behind the wheel--charismatic, dangerous, and protective toward his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster), who's attracted to Brian as the newest member of Dom's car-crazy team.

Director Rob Cohen treats this like Roman tragedy for MTV junkies, pushing every scene to adrenaline-pumping extremes; when his camera isn't caressing a spectrum of nitrous oxide-enhanced dream machines, it's ogling countless slim 'n' sexy race babes. The undercover-cop scenario cheaply borrows the split-loyalty theme perfected in Donnie Brasco; a rival Asian gang adds mystery and menace; and digital trickery is cleverly employed to explore the fuel-injected innards of the day-glo racecars. It's about as substantial as a perfume ad, but just as alluring, and for heavy-metal maniacs of any age, Diesel's superblown '69 Charger proves that Detroit muscle never goes out of style. --Jeff Shannon

Necessary Roughness

Flypaper

Flypaper is a curious name for this shaggy-dog film about characters who continually cross paths as their lives careen out of control. Craig Sheffer is the ostensible lead, though his hotheaded, gun-toting criminal is hardly the picture's hero. He kick-starts the story by kidnapping meth lab chemist Lucy Liu, and then hunts down his junkie girlfriend, Sadie Frost, who is now under the care of her crotchety real estate mogul guardian (Robert Loggia). In the very next room is John C. McGinley, cheating on his jealous future bride, Illeana Douglas, with Talisa Soto, a dominatrix in tight leather. The film plays out these threads as if they are destined to intertwine in some improbable climax, but instead they merely crisscross in passing, finally fraying in a soft, anticlimactic conclusion. The performers try to have some fun with their familiar parts, and writer-director Klaus Hoch tosses in a few curve balls (my favorite is the knife sticking out of Sheffer's skull like a topknot, turning the homicidal heist man into a punch-drunk pussycat), but for all his offbeat humor and funky twists, nothing in Flypaper ever sticks. --Sean Axmaker

The Fast and the Furious (Full Screen Tricked Out Edition)

A guilty pleasure with excess horsepower, The Fast and the Furious efficiently combines time-honored male fantasies (hot cars, hot women, hot action) into a vacuous plot of crystalline purity. It's trash, but it's fun trash, in which a hotshot Los Angeles cop named Brian (Paul Walker) infiltrates a gang of street racers suspected of fencing stolen goods from hijacked trucks. The gang leader is Dom (Vin Diesel), ex-con and reigning king of the street racers, who lives for those 10 seconds of freedom when his high-performance "rice rocket" (a highly modified Asian import) hurtles toward another quarter-mile victory. Racing is street theater for a lawless youth subculture, and Dom is a star behind the wheel--charismatic, dangerous, and protective toward his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster), who's attracted to Brian as the newest member of Dom's car-crazy team.

Director Rob Cohen treats this like Roman tragedy for MTV junkies, pushing every scene to adrenaline-pumping extremes; when his camera isn't caressing a spectrum of nitrous oxide-enhanced dream machines, it's ogling countless slim 'n' sexy race babes. The undercover-cop scenario cheaply borrows the split-loyalty theme perfected in Donnie Brasco; a rival Asian gang adds mystery and menace; and digital trickery is cleverly employed to explore the fuel-injected innards of the day-glo racecars. It's about as substantial as a perfume ad, but just as alluring, and for heavy-metal maniacs of any age, Diesel's superblown '69 Charger proves that Detroit muscle never goes out of style. --Jeff Shannon

Double Down

Street Fighter - Code of Honor Collection

Colonel William Guile is a martial arts expert who travels the global tournament circuit. His competitive fighting, however, conceals his top secret mission- he is leader of an elite group of international crime fighters known only as Street Fighter. Their code of honor: Discipline; Justice; Commitment. Whether the evil Bison plans to release a deadly virus, set a comet on a collision course with Earth, or collapse the train tunnels beneath the English Channel, it takes a well-honed combat unit to foil his sadistic scemes... Packed with fierce fighting, ample thrills and a team of genuine heroes, Street Fighter is a proven winner.

Fast and Furious 2-Movie 2-Pack Collection (Full Screen Editions)

Ill Gotten Gains (Chk Sen)