The improbable Fast and the Furious franchise continues with the newest entry entitled, uh, Fast & Furious. And if you want to gage what makes this entry so different from the other films, one need only to re-read the title to realize how predictable this entry, with its highly vaunted return of the original cast, really is. While it’s an impressive feat I guess that Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez were finally able to get over whatever issues blocking this reunion in the first place, but first and most I must obviously ask: why is this such a big deal?

For my money I though that the original film was the worst of the series; it was slow, plodding and trying desperately to be deeper than it could ever possibly be. Oh look, LA cop Brian O’Conner’s conflicted about putting cuffs on street racer Dominic, because beneath all the illegal activities Dom’s a pretty great guy. Swoon. Unfortunately for the makers of TFATF, I’ve seen Point Break. Replace surfing with street racing, replace the bland Keanu Reeves with the blander Paul Walker and take out the part where the cop fires his gun in the air while the bad guy gets away, you have a multi-millionaire dollar franchise rather than the punchline in Hot Fuzz.

Fair enough, people liked it I guess. So what’s the big deal about this reunion picture? Well, first of all, it’s pretty much a rip-off of 2 Fast 2 Furious with Brian going uncover to bust an international crime ring, except Diesel’s Dominic gets the Tyrese Gibson slot as Brian’s underworld co-pilot. Throw in a revenge plot that has Dominic returning to LA to find the guy that killed the Bonnie to his Clyde Letty (Rodriguez) and within the first ten minutes you’re already cooking with enough cop movie clichés to supply three more Hot Fuzzes. Oh yeah, Brewster’s back as Dom’s sister Mia – she offers moral support, I guess.

Basically, this fourth instalment suffers the same ironic malady of the very first film: it moves too darn slowly. The chase that opens the film - the same one from the teaser trailer by the way - is a brisk shot of adrenaline to open the film, while the concluding chase features a pretty slick drag through some underground tunnels. The rest in between is kind of ho-hum with generous portions of boring. We see Brian having to deal with FBI politics while Dominic pursues leads to Letty’s killer with all the passionate drive of a toaster oven. I realize this film series was never recognized for the acumens of its thespians, but at least put on a show when the cars aren’t running.

All-in-all though, I’d say that this is probably what any fan of the series is probably expecting. Justin Lin shows a competent hand in construction the action, but the problem is that you feel kind of disengaged from it all. I can honestly say that I could have cared less if Letty was avenged or not, and as for buying Paul Walker as a Jack Bauer-esque rogue agent that plays by his own rules I’d say he’d be a more believable Papa Smurf. If nothing else we at least learn the how and why Dominic knew Han (Sung Kang in a brief cameo before pointedly saying that “there doing some cool stuff in Tokyo”) and showed up at the end of Tokyo Drift. That one was keeping me up at night.