Review of Fast and Furious (1939) by Scott H — 16 Sep 2015

Vin Diesel and Paul Walker are back, and they are having to work together even though they kind of don't really like each other still. The movie basically is all about the bad guys and the good guys being Walker and Diesel where both of them have the old shared enemy thing going on and have to help each other to achieve their goal. The plot kind of plays out like a crime thriller but with lots of cars, in fact I even felt at times like the cars were not as important in this one as before, they don't talk about them as if they are humans like they have before. The reasons I think this movie is poor I will go into but first I must say if you haven't seen the one's before this then go and watch them or this will make no sense.

Let's start with the actors and the star attractions to the show, Paul Walker and Vin Diesel return in the style they left us with last. The duo have a strange problem in which I felt was actually the director and writers fault, giving them lines that make them look really dumb and obvious although neither actor does that well in this. The film has a lot of poor acting throughout and though it definitely isn't really dislikeable, still just far from good enough in this already high grossing franchise. The thing is I didn't hate this movie far from it in fact it isn't actually bad, but for me it is too close to being bad for it to even break average, the whole story is pretty basic but the people behind the scenes are the one's who make it a let down.

Justin Lin is the man in the directors chair and for me he is again poor, the vision he sets out is just too like I said before, obvious, and he turns some moments which could have been good into over the top action and acting. Chris Morgan writes again and the collaborating between Lin and Morgan just is not going well, the dialogue is messy and like I said the whole plot is set out in such a generic and basic way. This movie will try to draw you in with all its action and big chases and races but all of it is false things to make you excited and I refused to be won over by disappointing work behind the scenes.

Now the fourth instalment is probably somewhere so far into the series around third in my rankings, just about better than Tokyo Drift but below the first two. If you're interested in the series and have maybe already really connected with certain characters then maybe you will enjoy this more than I did and although I didn't really not enjoy it, I just felt it too much of a mess to be a film I could look back on with positivity. What Justin Lin tries to create is a movie that is fast but sombre and contains a whole lot of one-liners to try and impress, some come off well but the majority do not and overall I didn't feel pleased enough by the lines.

So The Fast and Furious marches on and although this does it fast and furious, they forgot to make it actually good. One weird thing I felt about this was that actors like Walker and Vin Diesel are getting better as their respective characters and for the first time in the series since the first maybe, I could feel a little connection with them if only in select points. Finally I would recommend this to of course fan's of the series but also those who like big stunts and a bit of action + fast cars too, it feels a bit like a movie that someone attached NOS too and then flung into a cinema screen full pelt.