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April 7, 2009

Review: Fast And Furious

highspeedhijinks

On Friday night, the wait was finally over. I had my large bag of Sour Patch Kids and I was ready for the two hours of non-stop motor mayhem that is Fast and Furious.

The lights dimmed and the scene opened with Dom and Letty chasing down this massive tanker convoy, ready to jump aboard and hijack its lucrative cargo. How do they do that? Through outlandish acrobatics and cryogenic technology–what did you expect? The ensuing series of events during the heist borders on insanity as Dom proceeds to drive 55 mph in reverse–in a Grand National–and pull off an improbably timed power brake that enables him to escape by diving under a flaming tanker barrel-rolling down the highway toward him. Yep, Fast and Furious is up to the same old tricks that made the first installment every car nut’s love-to-hate movie in the first place.

I so badly wanted to like this movie, but I’m sorry to say that I saw it for what it was: a sub-par attempt to rekindle a dying franchise. I’m not going to totally rag on this movie, though–there were some definite pros. Follow the jump for my full review.

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The first and most important pro was, surprisingly, the plot. Dom’s vengeance on behalf of a murdered loved one is the driving force of the story, and keeps you interested and rooting for him to get the bad guy right from the beginning. Add in the predictable yet necessary plot twist towards the end, and you’ve got an action movie with at least some degree of depth to it. In a sense the movie gives you two villans and two heroes: Brian O’Connor struggles to make things right by going after Campos, a drug lord who has eluded FBI capture–while Dom goes after the killer who works for Campos. Paul Walker’s performance is leaps and bounds better than his doltish Brian O’Connor of the first movie, where he came off as a cardboard “Keanu Reeves, Surf Detective” cutout. His reprised role is much more believable, and as the movie rolls on you can see he’s much more credibly torn between his serve-and-protect cop persona and his true, crime-loving gearhead self. Dom’s character, in turn, seems to have grown a more believable sensitive side–he’s a guy whose tastes have changed from tricked-out imports to big nasty American muscle, and he’s ready to stop running from the law to save his friends and family. A movie like this is exactly the thing to play to Vin Diesel’s potential as an action performer, and it kind of makes you wonder why his career was never able to get any real traction.

Anyway, the writing and the character portrayals were decent, and quite a bit more subtle than expected. But I can tell you what sucked about the movie in three simple words: Computer Generated Imagery.

As a big fan of movies like Bullitt, Smokey and the Bandit, and Vanishing Point, I know it’s possible to make an exciting chase scene without the help of computers. Fast and Furious, however, thought that in order to go bigger and badder with its action, it had to go digital and unrealistic. Couple that with over-editing of the live action chase scenes, and you can hardly tell what’s happening. The best chase by far is the main race through city streets, held as a kind of audition to gain membership in Campos’ organization. It was exciting, fast-paced, and all real. The worst chase scene has to be at the end where Dom, Brian, and several bad guys are in the mineshaft-like tunnel on the US-Mexico border. The entire chase from beginning to end was seemingly CGI intercut with a few in-car shots. Yes, I understand that there isn’t some web of tunnels someplace where you can conveniently race cars for filming, but they could have made do with above-ground built sets. The over-computerized action seemed to detract from the charm of the first movie, which was much more based in real cars racing other real cars.
My other problem with the movie was its abandonment of what made it popular in the first place: Imports. Boy was I ever surprised to find myself missing them! But remember that import and tuner cars didn’t have a movie to call their own until The Fast and The Furious, and this latest sequel left them on the sidelines to watch. The movie even makes a bit point of having one of the characters say to Brian, “Muscle beats import every time!” It kind of felt like a slap in the face to the hordes of kids who drove to the theater in their Civics and their AE86′s to see the latest in the series that first popularized their scene, and that might’ve even been what got them into tuner culture in the first place. Out of all the cars that saw action, I counted only a handful that were imports: Brian’s GT-R (why did he need to pick three if he was only going to drive one ?), the STi they stole, and what I think was a 240sx in the main race scene (the cut editing was so fast I never got a good look at it). Most of the rest were just background cars or leaning-posts for hotties. Did I really mind that muscle cars played a bigger role? Well, not really. But muscle gets to steal the spotlight in nearly every other contemporary car movie–it seems like Fast and Furious should be the place where the import segment gets to shine.

My one remaining grievance with this movie has to be its relentless video-game marketing effort. I hope others noticed how oddly the first half of the movie played out. Note the staged missions, objectives, and even a GPS that guided characters through a video-game street course–it made you feel like a passive spectator to the video game version of the movie, as if they came up with the game first and then wrote the film script based on it. Sorry guys, that only works if you’re Resident Evil.

In closing, I think Fast and Furious fully intended to be a more faithful sequel to the first movie, and wanted to rekindle what we all fell in love with. But with stunts so over-the-top as to be completely unbelievable, over-animated chase scenes, and the mentality that more editing equals better action, it fell short of being truly satisfying as either a sequel or an action movie.

What did you think of the movie? Share your own review in the comments!

Permalink:

Posted at 1:07 am in David Clarke, Fast and Furious, Fast and the Furious, The Fast and the Furious

Comments

lifeonacloud
Apr 15, 2009 at 8:55 am

As far as the franchise goes, this was probably the best one, but considering what it had to stand up against, that’s really not saying a whole lot. Well I can appreciate a nice car, I’m not sure how like 3 grand worth of stickers and spoilers that make work benches hide in shame are 1. Visually appealing or 2. Have any merit what so ever. The best part of the first movie was the 69 Charger and Vin Diesels well toned upper body, which I will say again, was the best part about the 4th movie. The 2nd and 3rd were absolutely horrible. Paul walker, while nice to look at, is not a good actor, hands down he’s horrible actually, and while there were a few nice cars that definetly wasn’t enough to make the 1.5 hrs I sat on the couch watching it worth it by any means. The 3rd movie, well I don’t even have words, it was the worst thing I’ve ever seen, aside from Babylon AD, which even Vin Diesels sexy arms couldn’t save. The third movies story line was so horrible that it was like watching someone embarass themselves so bad your embarassed yourself, altho I think I remember a pretty nice RX7 that no one would admit was an actually an RX7. I agree about a lot of the details of the movie to, magic repairs, driving through rock walls and we’re ok? Yeah I don’t think so. Some things you can let slide, I mean your not going to watch the Dukes of Hazzard and say, hey they’d never land that, cause duh, they know that, it’s just suppose to be entertaining, but some stuff just starts to get on your nerves.

darthrageracer
Apr 10, 2009 at 8:54 am

wow you left the worst review for the best MOVIE, MOVIE, MOVIE in case you didnt catch that, MOVIE! Geez that movie was good as hell everyone once realistic crap all the time. How boring would that be, say bye to all sci fi then. I hate people with no imagination and judge a movie so harsh. Anyway you still paid to go see it so I guess it doesnt matter

Cal26Stang
Apr 7, 2009 at 8:05 pm

I thought the movie was really good, It had great cars. The reason why he picked three cars at that one scene was because he mixed and matched parts into the skyline. The plot was good, and the action scenes were incredible. who cares if the cgi was average

Biggunna
Apr 7, 2009 at 5:37 pm

The movie itself was good compared to the previous on but I had a great experience with it in Hollywood. I don’t know if anyone else saw FF4 in D-Box as there are few theaters that have it but I was able to ignore some plot holes when my chair kept me on the edge of my seat and was moving to the action.

retroman
Apr 7, 2009 at 5:25 pm

It was ok. I’m glad they finally focused more on muscle cars and trucks for once. There were alot of lame parts. Did anyone else notice the tire screeching on what was supposed to be dirt? And the fact that the Charger magically regenerates itself so quickly was lame too.

SouthernGuy8503
Apr 7, 2009 at 1:52 pm

oh and ChevyDogg, when they said 5 years ago, they didn’t mean 5 years ago from now in 09, they meant its been 5 years since the 1st movie so in other words it was 5 years between the 1st movie and this movie, think you got a little mixed up

SouthernGuy8503
Apr 7, 2009 at 1:50 pm

not sure what year its based in but what happens in the movie actually happens between 2 fast 2 furious and tokyo drift, i believe 2F2F was back in 03 and tkyo drift was back in 06, or thats what the Copyright thing on the DVDs say, but like i said in my other comment a movie won’t be 100% accurate or “real”, but dom’s sis did say to brian that its been 5 years since they last talked and well the first movie was back in 01 so supposidly its based in 06 i guess but i makes sense because tokyo drift was in 06 and thats when dom showed up in tokyo at the end of the movie so it sounds right that its based in 06, but like i said movies can’t be 100% accurate anyways so ChevyDogg JDMGTR is probably right about the year

ChevyDogg
Apr 7, 2009 at 1:05 pm

o yea JDMGTR they say 5 years ago like 3 times in the movie so its not based in 06

ChevyDogg
Apr 7, 2009 at 1:03 pm

he got 3 skylines cause he took parts from all three obviously. i agree i wanted to see more of the first movie but its a new age c g is where its at. i love a classic car scene but thats not what u go to the movies for if i pay $10 for a movie i wana see some fake ass shit.Cool movie but not what i thought it was gona be.

M45lover
Apr 7, 2009 at 12:19 pm

I thought the movie was amazing, it has a great story and the acting was a lot better than any of the other ones. This is def. the best one of the series. If you don’t like it, thats fine. But this was def. a good movie. This is the type of movie that a car enthusiast needs to get on DVD.

YelLoWLaNCeR22
Apr 7, 2009 at 10:46 am

I thought it was the best so far, its more “believable” i guess you could say it didnt have as much stupid lingo as the first one with the piston rings and whatever. There were a few corny parts like when he quotes the too soon jr part from the first movie and sprays nos to catch dom (lame). And the fact that their bad ass sti couldnt even get away from 60’s and 70’s boat ass rwd cars on a dirt road. And the ending when the F bomb camero can somehow pull a huge wheelie while its already moving pretty good and on dirt.? I thought the acting was better and the plot was waay better than the others

for some reason it shows my comment by 7urtle?

7urtle
Apr 7, 2009 at 10:45 am

I thought it was the best so far, its more “believable” i guess you could say it didnt have as much stupid lingo as the first one with the piston rings and whatever. There were a few corny parts like when he quotes the too soon jr part from the first movie and sprays nos to catch dom (lame). And the fact that their bad ass sti couldnt even get away from 60′s and 70′s boat ass rwd cars on a dirt road. And the ending when the F bomb camero can somehow pull a huge wheelie while its already moving pretty good and on dirt.? I thought the acting was better and the plot was waay better than the others

7urtle
Apr 7, 2009 at 10:35 am

i agree with u david. the cliche of making fun of cliches was lame

FordRulesAll
Apr 7, 2009 at 9:54 am

I don’t know I still liked it a lot, I think it was a great movie. I liked the parts with the GPS, it gives it a more up-to-date street race feel. I’d have to say, my favorite part was when Dom got the F-Bomb on the rear wheels and rammed Pheonix into the WRX.

TOPlamborghini
Apr 7, 2009 at 8:59 am

Brett: this is a review! what do u expect?

and this is off-topic..very off topic…but i think i found the Bull-run EVO for sale:
http://www.mautofied.com/2006-Mitsubishi-evo-9_Import/listing/100145877/

thegdoat
Apr 7, 2009 at 8:38 am

I’d have to say this was the best fast and furious. The cars were good, but the story was great. I do agree with you David though, that the tunnel scene was couldn’t look anymore phony. I mean what were they doing, like 90 mph around those bends and not sliding one bit. But still, I’d have to say that I wasn’t disappointed. It was definitely a highly anticipated movie. Many sold out shows where I went to see it. And all you heard was exhaust in the parking lot. I enjoyed it.

tyndago
Apr 7, 2009 at 7:59 am

Some behind the scenes pictures. http://www.gtrusablog.com/2009/04/fast-and-furious-4-more-behind-scenes.html

The silver R33 , gunmetal R32 , white R34(which is Pauls personal car), and the blue R34 are in there.

TheMaro82
Apr 7, 2009 at 7:49 am

It was a alright movie, it was nice to see some of the old characters, im sure if vindiesel was in the fast and furious 2 it woulda been a way better movie, but any ways nothing it better then the first

SouthernGuy8503
Apr 7, 2009 at 7:20 am

ok david you say your disappointed that it wasn’t enough imports? well they gave you all the imports you wanted in the first 3 movies, first one only had the one dodge charger R/T, 2nd one had about 5 or 6 which had maybe 10 minutes in the film except for 2 of them the yenko camaro and challenger and well the 3rd one waws all imports except for the one mustang which they even put an import engine in, this one was for the muscle, sorry lol, you do realize that V8 and muscle car people like me watch these movies to not just little import drivers, also you say this franchise is dying, to me its not, its one of the only movie franchises that hasn’t died, only way its the same as the others is that the 1st one is the best, but my opinion is that this movie is better than 2 fast 2 furious and maybe better than tokyo drift, its not better than the 1st one but its damn close
>>>>
plus think about it, if every movie in the franchise was only just about cars like the first one then people would still complain, people would complain that they want to see a movie with a real plot so either way people are going to find a reason to bitch and complain about something, i think your just looking too much into it, why not enjoy the movie, people want to pick through movies with a fine tooth comb, just enjoy movies like they’re made for, i wish people would watch movies anbd enjoy them instead of looking for something to bitch about, ya movies are supposed to be as real as possible but some people think they have to be 100% real, like can’t be one mistake, a movie isn’t supposed to be 100% real, thats what its called a MOVIE and not a Documentary or Reality TV

Brett Powers
Apr 7, 2009 at 6:26 am

Thanks TOPlamborghini, for giving away the fact that LETTY is the one who dies to those of us who haven’t seen it…..

Moparmaniac07
Apr 7, 2009 at 6:23 am

*rounds

Moparmaniac07
Apr 7, 2009 at 6:23 am

trh1987

Revolvers can hold more than six roungs, some can hold 9 or more. They’re not all six-shooters anymore.

And I didn’t see the movie yet, maybe sametime down the road I will, but I probably won’t go see it in the theaters.

TOPlamborghini
Apr 7, 2009 at 5:50 am

Maffew: you forgot to add Babylon A.D.

TOPlamborghini
Apr 7, 2009 at 5:45 am

This one was the best! But i caught something that was kinda cool:
Dom was seen at the end of Tokyo drift, because he heard of Han’s death. So he went to Tokyo to give his farewells. Kinda like how he went back to L.A. to seek revenge on Letty’s death.

And dont call me crazy, but was Dom crying after he beat up Brian?
I swore he got teary-eyed when Brian told him that Letty just wanted him to come home.

NobiZero
Apr 7, 2009 at 5:26 am

“Sorry guys, that only works if you’re Resident Evil.”
…it didn’t work for Resident Evil either, which save for a few character names had nothing to do with the game, and the CGI in that was horrible.

We need someone, a big Hollywood director, to step up and finally give us a proper car movie again. One where it doesn’t take itself so seriously and plays itself for what it is, an enjoyable car movie. If you ignore the stupidity, The Dukes of Hazzard movie came close, as did Death Race, but it was overly CGI’d too in my opinion. I don’t care how many cars get wrecked, how many bleeding hearts are gonna whine about what kind and how many of a car gets destroyed in filming, I want a real, live action car movie, and I want it now!

midniteOG
Apr 7, 2009 at 4:57 am

“The over-computerized action seemed to detract from the charm of the first movie, which was much more based in real cars racing other real cars.”

true.. this movie was decent, wasnt outstandingly good, and wasnt horrible, but it did lack some. at least t was better than “2fast 2 furious”

Maffew
Apr 7, 2009 at 3:57 am

“and it kind of makes you wonder why his career was never able to get any real traction.”

I’m just guessing here, but my three reasons would be:

a) bailed on TFATF2, B), bailed on XXX 2, C) The Pacifier.

trh1987
Apr 7, 2009 at 3:17 am

How about the 7 shots out of a revolver in walker’s opening chase scene? (those things only pack 6) and the missing drive shaft when the subie rolled in the final scenes. And I’m pretty sure I remember a brutal front impact with the challenger that was magically repaired, It’s all in the details!

JDMGTR
Apr 7, 2009 at 1:16 am

Oh, and might I also add, the first one is the only one that I’ll be able to smile and tell my kids about. Being twelve, and seeing that in theatres, with friends…

That was an experience I will never ever forget. Truly the best version, without a doubt. Nothing can take that first one away.

JDMGTR
Apr 7, 2009 at 1:14 am

I loved how Brian asked for a white BNR34, A blue BNR34, and a red R35 GT-R.

What did he end up with?

A Silver BCNR33, A blue BNR34, and a Black R35.

Not to mention, this movie was supposed to take place in 2006…. so how did he get his hands on an R35, and a Subaru Impreza WRX STI current Gen? Seems like they got a few hits and misses here.