REVIEW: Fast and Furious (2009)
Fast and Furious
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 107 minutes
Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez.
My rating: 3 stars
Your Rating (Click stars to rate):
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By this time, everyone knows what they are going to get from a Fast and Furious movie. There has been one every two years since 2001 when The Fast and the Furious was released.
Then Vin Diesel disappeared from the franchise, but the movies kept coming. 2 Fast 2 Furious lacked any magic without Paul Walker and Diesel together. Then Walker left, so they went to Tokyo for The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. But alas, Diesel and Walker return for Fast and Furious, hoping to rejuvenate the franchise – or at least kill it off for good.
Rapper Toothpick wrote a song called “The High Life.” Part of the lyrics are:
I'm stuck in this sorry ass town. Where white kids trick out Hondas and drive around
I know this song because I had a friend in high school that was white and drove a tricked out Dodge Stratus. He loved the first movie.
Based on the number of straight-brimmed, side-tilted caps worn by the white kids in the audience, my friend would love this one, too. Maybe this is how the big three automakers can survive – make tricked out vehicles. Of course, they’d have to put a warning on them that says, “Don’t drive Fast and Furious.”
I have another warning: Rent Fast and Furious. There’s nothing new to see, except an 8-year-older Diesel, Walker and Michelle Rodriguez.
The opening scene – a chase where Dominic (Diesel) and girlfriend Letty (Rodriguez) are coordinating a high-speed fuel tank hijacking – is one of the most impressive effects work and execution in recent memory. Most of the chases paled in comparison, including the finale, which was entirely too preposterous.
There is no need to describe the plot because, really, who cares at this point? This movie will not bring any new fans to the franchise. Why would you even bother picking up the story with the fourth installment? That would be like watching the second Lord of the Rings without seeing the first or reading the book.
Fast and Furious does a good job at being self-contained, meaning, if you haven’t seen any of the first three, the story can still be followed.
In the franchise, Fast and Furious succeeds at bringing back the depth of the first one. But on the whole, this film is a lot of nice-looking, loud, fast cars and incredible driving. I do not know of a real car that handles like those in the movies.
Diehards to the series will like this movie. Those that gave up on it after 2 Fast 2 Furious should come back. Everyone else, wait until the DVD. It’s a lot of noise on the big screen with no character development.
It’s cops and robbers with limitless budgets. Three stars.
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