Review of Fast & Furious (2009) by Bryan N — 04 Jan 2012

Apparently dropping the "The"s in the name warrants it a contender for a sequel title. Justin Lin's (Tokyo Drift/Annapolis) Fast and Furious brings the series back to gritty Los Angeles where the film series implanted it's roots eight years ago. Over those eight years the tuner car fad has come and gone with the times, so how does an aging movie series about fast cars keep itself relevant? By downplaying the cars and kicking up the action...

This is where lies Fast and Furious' main problem. Although there are slick fast cars of all types in the film, there just isn't enough of them. The cars that are featured in the film are not even showcased all that well either which is disappointing. Little flash and too much bang. The action set pieces are top notch and directed well but sadly lack any realism to them as well. The cars lack any real sense of speed or adrenaline even in the over-the-top NOS scenes.But I'm not going to lie, seeing any car getting smashed into a pile of debris puts a huge smile on my face...but this isn't Transformers. Then again I'm being too critical because I did enjoy every second of those races not matter how ridiculous or outlandish they were.

The plot was okay at best. I blame the overall direction of the film more than the writing in this case though. The story was an almost sure fire win if it was executed right. But I found myself lost throughout most of the first half due to the lack of clarity on the characters motives. It all eventually clears up by the finale but just be prepared for the first half of the film to go over your head, with the characters clearly knowing more than you do. The acting was decent for your typical action film, the film marks a comeback for Vin Diesel who seemed to be in Movie Jail the past few years. Same goes for Paul Walker who turns in his best performance since Running Scared.

I walked into a sold out midnight show with the intention of not taking the film seriously, especially in comparison to other films. When compared to "2 Fast 2 Furious" and "Tokyo Drift" this film succeeds in giving us a great time at the movies; Mindless action, fast driving, the girls, and of course the cars. But when you compare it to the movie that started it all it still falls very short. I must say though that Fast and Furious is the best attempt yet to match what made the first movie soo incredibly slick, cool, and awesome...