I haven't seen this for so long that I forgot that these initial movies were so frustrating. The cool cars, ladies at display are all good, the races are done with finesse that we haven't seen in the movies before it (though I feel Mad Max 2 has better chases still) and the two leads both complement each other well. And yet it goes on and on focusing on a plot that's well beyond its reach and its actors were not yet mature to handle. Instead it goes through predictable motions of movie making and family ties which resolves to literal nothing, all the while taking itself too seriously. This is a lucky franchise that it got sequels that helped the series to mature.

B-