It's an interesting feeling to be watching a film and realize, not long into it, that you've seen it before. Not the exact film, mind you, but the same plot, the same characters and nearly the exact same setups.

Start with a group of thrillseekers. These aren't your every day, run-of-the-mill, adrenaline junkies. Rather, this is a group so close-knit that they form almost a secret society, a subculture that is completely alien to anyone not on the inside. Within this group, there is an even tighter group for whom the thrills aren't so thrilling anymore. They need something more, something illegal. How do you go about catching these crooks? Naturally, you place an undercover officer in their midst, someone who can convincingly act a part of their culture, in the hopes that these otherwise cunning thieves will take the newcomer in with open arms.

Strangely enough, the movie I've just described is not Point Break, the film about surfer thieves who rob banks to fund their surfing lifestyle and the undercover FBI agent who infiltrates their gang. However, if you've seen that film, then The Fast and the Furious will cause a serious case of deja vu within the first 20 minutes or so. This time we're dealing not with surfers, but with street racers and instead of banks, they're hijacking trucks. The undercover cop even talks like Keanu Reaves. Dye his hair black and I'm sure he'd look like him, too.

The truckers and the police have little more to go on other than the hijackings are being committed by a group of souped-up import sports cars. This immediately leads the police to suspect the local street racers and they send one of their own, Brian O' Connor (Paul Walker), to infiltrate their group. O' Connor starts out by working at a local auto parts store that specializes in import racing accessories. He is also given a massively customized Eclipse to race with. This car has so much cash dropped into it that the LAPD may just have to drop its entire West and Valley Bureaus just to cover the bill.

The conceit of the film is that these racer/thieves have not seen Point Break and are therefore willing to accept a white-bread, newbie racer no one has heard of nor seen before into their fold with no questions asked. Once you accept that, it's not difficult to accept that dozens of highly conspicuous imports can race at 100-plus miles per hour nightly on public streets without the police ever figuring it out. You'll also be able to accept that the thieves can perform highly conspicuous hijackings unnoticed or without one of the truckers simply running them over (let's be honest here - one of those imports would barely register as a speedbump to a semi truck). And finally, you'll accept that neither the good guys can figure out who the bad guys are and the bad guys can't figure out who the good guy is until it's way too late.

But still, this is fun movie to watch. For one thing, it has some really exciting car chases and races. Sure, these scenes are almost entirely digitally enhanced, but they look good anyway. For another, the film has Vin Diesel as the leader of one of the groups of racers. Diesel continues to display genuine charisma on screen and here he manages to create the most interesting and likable character in the film.

There aren't going to be many surprises in The Fast and the Furious. In fact, if you can't outline the entire plot within the first 10 minutes, then it's only because you aren't paying attention to the film. Still, this is proof that even recycled material can be entertaining if done well. This is a slick, loud and fast film and as long as you don't go in expecting much from it, then it's good for nearly two hours of fun.