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CHICAGO – The Steppenwolf Theatre of Chicago continues to provide different viewpoints on the American stage, and their latest “Little Bear Ridge Road” is no exception. Featuring ensemble member Laurie Metcalf, it’s the resonate story of a family at the crossroads. For tickets/details, click LITTLE BEAR.
JIM reviews = “FAST & FURIOUS [4’] -- Original Parts, with Replacement Chases =
Submitted by jimchudnow@sbcg... on April 9, 2009 - 12:43am
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“FAST & FURIOUS [4’] — Original Parts, with Replacement Chases =
[Rating: 7 of 10 stars]
They brought back the 4 main stars of the original: VIN DIESEL (as the gang leader), MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ (as his love), JORDANA BREWSTER (as his sister), & PAUL WALKER (as the “turncoat” FBI agent who once loved the sister). The film starts out with a great road chase concerning hijacking a tanker truck, and that’s followed by loads of other exceptionally well-done car races & chases. There is a story (clearly SECONDARY to the pursuit actions), wherein Diesel goes “motoring” undercover to try to find a drug dealer guy who’d done him “wrong”. There are disagreements between him & “his” people, the FBI & their people, the drug dealers, etc. They just DON’T all get “along”! Diesel (especially when compared to somebody like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) comes across to me as overly “STIFF” & outwardly impassive (except in calculated-violence scenes). The ending is overly “VAGUE” (“hinting”-at, rather than directly showing, “resolution” things, quite possibly with a view for a planned “re-SEQUEL-ing”), &, while the ACTION is fine, that’s pretty much all there really “IS” to this endeavor.
