You know a big budget movie franchise has problems if their latest sequel attempts to forget that the weakest entries of the series ever happened. After the second film lost the majority of its originality and talent, the ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise has struggled to regain the popularity of its popular first installment. With the four original cast members finally returning to spark some much needed interest into the dying franchise, the fourth and latest entry is simply running on old fumes. This franchise remained steady largely due to its popular first film, ‘The Fast and the Furious.’ It featured a young charismatic cast surrounded by an increasingly popular trend of customized cars and unique car stunts. Paul Walker stars as Brian O’Conner; an undercover cop who infiltrates an underworld of Los Angeles street racers. Among those street racers, O’Conner befriends Dominic Toretto; a prime suspect in a highway hijacking ring played by Vin Diesel. After three films, these two characters haven’t changed a bit. They still face the same issues of trust. Toretto still hates O’Conner for dating his sister, and O’Conner still struggles with the issue of arresting Toretto. All the same, the film opens remarkably similar to its predecessor with a high speed desert highway truck hijacking by a mysterious team of expensive speedsters. In essence, ‘Fast and Furious’ simply set out to give conclusion to these underdeveloped aspects of the first. With O’Conner now attempting to track down a heroin importer that Toretto is also seeking revenge from, the film does manage to bring intriguing new developments to their hate-filled relationship. Sadly, this improvement is met with yet another mistake as the filmmakers decide to follow after the awful choice of the second film and replace the majority of the impressive car stunts with horrid CGI effects. It’s hard to think of a movie with flashy cars, blatantly unnecessary sexuality and an absence of originality as anything other than a pathetic attempt to capitalize on the impressionable minds of teenagers. Like any dying franchise, the filmmakers played the safe-card and failed to bring any new stunts, emotions or conflicts to the table. After another set of losses, there’s no question this franchise has finally run out of gas. ‘THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS’ Letter Grade: C- Rated: PG-13, for intense sequence of violence and action, some sexual content, language and drug references. Runtime: 107 min. Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez Director: Justin Lin