REEL CRITICS

‘The Fast and the Furious’ wild ride

Finally! “The Fast and The Furious” has finally roared into theaters.

I’ve been waiting six months. I was saddened and greatly irritated when

they pushed back the release date from March to June, and I certainly

wasn’t the only one excited to see the new street racing movie. Alluring

men and fast cars, what more could a girl ask for?

Give me more excitement and thrill, please! The action genre needs

some pumping up. “Tomb Raider” and “Swordfish” were so pathetic. But I

was ready, blood was pumping through my veins 10 minutes before “The Fast

and the Furious” even started.

It was a wild ride. The engines would rev, and my pulse shot through

the roof. Paul Walker and Vin Diesel are great eye candy (they play the

roles given them with great power). Yet, my blood pressure quickly

returned to normal. I should have known then that something was

dreadfully wrong with me.

I think the use of nitrous oxide is boring on a straight race course.

The idea of a tricked out Jetta is ridiculous. As such, the speed in the

movie was not a thrill, and the cars are a bit silly at times.

I knew too much about the movie going in. None of the “surprises”

confused me. I wanted heart-pounding excitement and a bit of education

about the racing scene, but the movie jumps from one idea to the next too

fast. No scene gets played out properly.

If director Rob Cohen had expanded the movie, he would have given the

characters and story a chance to get comfortable with each other. As it

is, it all feels a bit awkward.

“The Fast and the Furious” gains momentum as it goes, and does

eventually reach nail-biting suspense, only to end 10 minutes later with

the weakest ending I’ve seen in years.

But, I’m missing the point. This movie is for the car lover and the

drag racing lover. If you can speak the car language, then please, go see

the movie. I hear it’s mandatory for males younger than 30. For the rest

of us, well, there are some good cartoons out right now.

In any case, welcome to “The Fast and the Furious” summer, it’s gonna

be fun.

o7 “The Fast and the Furious” is rated PG-13 for violence, sexual

content and language.f7

* MELISSA RICHARDSON is a Costa Mesa resident and a junior at UC

Irvine.

Acting, story of ‘Songcatcher’ catches viewer

I hope members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences see

and remember this terrific film at Oscar nomination time. Janet McTeer is

absolutely dazzling in the title role of this very special film.

McTeer plays Dr. Lily Penleric, a college professor of musicology in

the early 1900s who finds herself replaced on the staff by a male

professor. Hurt and angry, Lily takes off into the wilds of the Blue

Ridge Mountains to visit her sister, who is a schoolteacher in a small,

rural community.

The mountains hold a wonderful surprise for Lily. This isolated area,

where people have been living for several centuries shut off from the

rest of the country, is a treasure house of early English folk ballads

and dances. Before long, the determined Lily has managed to get recording

equipment delivered to her and has embarked upon a crusade to record this

precious musical heritage.

Needless to say, not everyone in the community is open to having their

music “caught” by this strange newcomer. Before long, the community is

divided between those who are pleased to have Lily’s attention and are

willing to sing their songs into her strange contraption, and those who

see her as a threat.

There are wonderful performances by Jane Adams as Lily’s sister, Elna;

Aidan Quinn as Tom Bledsoe, an embittered man who has retreated back to

the mountains he once left; and Pat Carroll as Viney, Tom’s grandmother.

It would have been easy to tell this story at the expense of these

“simple mountain folk,” but Maggie Greenwald, who wrote and directed

“Songcatcher,” creates characters too strong and three-dimensional for

that. Above all, Greenwald never loses touch with the power of the music

that seems to be an integral part of their lives.

And oh, what music. I have a feeling that the percentage of the movie

audience who become soundtrack CD purchasers will be very high.

Following as it does close on the heels of “O Brother Where Art

Thou?”, another film that celebrates our musical heritage, “Songcatcher”

further fulfills a desire for music that uses neither electronic

manipulation nor synthesizing. I, for one, am going to dust off my old

guitar, find my Woody Guthrie records and get ready for the revival.

o7 “Songcatcher” is rated PG-13 for sexual content and an intense

scene of childbirth.

f7 * JUNE FENNER, a Costa Mesa resident in her late 50s, is vice

president of a work-force training company.