Todd McCarthy of "Variety" called the film "a gritty and gratifying cheap thrill, Rob Cohen's high-octane hot-car meller is a true rarity these days, a really good exploitationer, the sort of thing that would rule at drive-ins if they still existed." Kevin Thomas of the "Los Angeles Times" called it "an action picture that's surprising in the complexity of its key characters and portents of tragedy." Vin Diesel's portrayal of Dominic Torretto won praise, with Reece Pendleton of the "Chicago Reader" writing that "Diesel carries the movie with his unsettling mix of Zen-like tranquillity and barely controlled rage."