Fast and Furious

When the The Fast and the Furious came out in 2001, it turned Vin Diesel into the next big action guy. Movie fans already knew him from Pitch Black and loved him in it, but it took a movie with a weak script, weaker acting, and Ja Rule to introduce him to mainstream audiences. However bad The Fast and the Furious was in terms of a standard cinematic definition, it is also that entertaining. It’s awesome cars doing awesome things, filled with loud music and dancing girls in between. It’s a franchise that was tailor fitted for Vin, and yet he turned it down, saying “I don’t do sequels.” So, what does it say for that promising career of his that he’s now doing the fourth installment of the series and it’s considered a massive step up for his career. I guess that’s what happens when you agree to do The Pacifier.

Let’s be clear about one thing before we continue. I love The Fast and the Furious series. I love the original, I defend 2 Fast 2 Furious and Tyresse from everyone who shits all over them, and I thoroughly enjoyed Tokyo Drift. As much as I enjoyed the sequels, they were still missing The Dies (pronounced D’s, and trust me, it’s gonna catch on). That’s why no matter what happened, Fast and Furious would be awesome, because as the tag line of the movie says “New Model. Original Parts.”

By this point, people should know whether or not you like the franchise. If you didn’t like the first ones, don’t see this one. This review is for fans of the franchise, and the answer to the question is yes, you should see it immediately. It’s all the best parts of the first three movies combined into one. This is a movie for people love cars, which should be every guy in the world, and of course, the cars are awesome. This is a movie for people who love The Dies, and yes, he’s awesome. The races are very well-shot and directed and again prove why practical effects should always be used when they can be. It’s filled with random dancing and club scenes in which there are apparently no men aside from the main characters and women just experiment with each other all the time.

If you don’t like the above listed factors, this movie is obviously not for you, because outside of car races/chases, F&F does not bring much to the table. The acting is atrocious, especially Paul Walker. As usual, he looks like he was just handed his lines ten minutes before the scene shoots. This is kind of upsetting, since I know he can act (have you seen Running Scared?), but I don’t care in a movie like this. The dialogue is laughably bad throughout, so it’s not like the actors really stood a chance to begin with. The only thing that really bothered me was the choice to use CGI more than any of the other films. A large section of the movie involves racing in underground caves and this is done entirely through computer graphics, and poor ones at that.

The reason that I love a movie that is technically horrible film making is because it knows what it’s supposed to do and it does it. It’s a movie about car racing, and those races are awesome. It fully embraces it’s ridiculousness and delivers enjoyable visuals. For example, The Dies leaps from his car into another car and elbows the other driver in the face in one fell swoop before throwing him out of the moving vehicle. Awesome, I know.

For anyone who is worried about seeing F&F because they didn’t see Tokyo Drift, I respond in two ways. One, this movie takes place before Tokyo Drift and actually sets up that spin off. Two, it’s a Fast and Furious movie. Why would you care about the plot? It’s got fast cars, hot girls, and The Dies. You should already be out the door.