THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS

Scantily clad babes and road-hugging hot rods abound in this speed-racing crime drama. What’s missing is plausibility and character development. Vin Diesel and Paul Walker are street racers who settle their need for speed — and big bucks — on the late-night highway. One is the acknowledged lord of the drag strip; the other is an undercover cop trying to solve a truck-hijacking ring. The two circle each other until after a series of ass-saving paybacks they check their ideological differences and side up. Add to the mix some Latino low-riders and an Asian motorcycle gang with blazing Uzis and you’ve got a thunderous jam of mayhem.

But director Rob Cohen (The Skulls) is an impresario of style over substance, so when it comes to drama, the lm’s idling. Only the brooding Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez (Girl ght) as his iron-chinned girlfriend register any depth. Walker and Jordana Brewster as the nubile love interest look great, but they’re left in the pits. At Maine Mall, Auburn, Biddeford, Brunswick, Chunky’s-Sanford, Falmouth, Lewiston, Oxford, Saco, Wells, Windham, Barrington, Portsmouth, Somersworth, Salisbury 95.

— Tom Meek