Review of The Fast and the Furious (2001) by Jacob M — 29 Aug 2014

Note that this is my first experience with the Fast and Furious franchise.

I wasn't sure what to think when I decided to give the franchise a go. Knowing the very mixed reaction these films have, I could go either way on where I stand. And it looks like that this is going to be a very rocky experience, cause the first installment is... not good.

The film is about a police detective named Brian O'Connor (the late Paul Walker) who is called to work undercover to investigate a mysterious hijacking of electronic devices. His search leads him into the world of street racing, dominated by Dominic Torretto (Groot, also known as Vin Diesel). Brian develops a bond with Toretto and learns more into street racing, even going as far as developing a romance with Dom's sister (Jordana Brewster), but as the hijackings are linked to Dom's hot streak at winning the races, Brian has to choose to whether he wants to bring down the law or protect his newfound friends.

I got to be honest; I actually wanted to like this movie. High-actane action, fast cars, intense thrills, this had potential to be a masterpiece. But The Fast and the Furious does not go anywhere to the point where I was totally thrilled. The storyline was taken from a film Patrick Swayze did in 1991, so the entire film id 100% unoriginal. Though I haven't seen the earlier film (which is called Point Blank), I have a gut feeling that that film featured the thrills that I was expecting.

Much of this film was almost a total bore. Characterization is all over the place. Only Paul Walker's detective character had a slight touch of character development, but I didn't think he was that interesting. Even worse is the fact that you're supposed to root for characters that break way too many rules to be considered good. Sure this concept worked well in the past, especially in Smokey and the Bandit, but at least Burt Reynolds had reason to do what he did in that film. Here, we aren't given much thought as to why Dom Toretto and his gang would steal electronics, other than to tweak up the cars, which adds the storytelling to complete stupidity. I got to admit, I liked Vin Diesel's toughness, but his team of criminals have almost no room to make me want to root for them.

Even worse I thought was the films obvious degrading of women. With the exception of Jordana Brewster, who made a decent female role model, every single woman in the film was depicted as hookers in skimpy clothing who only desire men with hot cars. I don't know about you, but I don't think every woman in the world wants to go around strutting in short skirts and dancing like disgusting prostitutes. When will Hollywood learn that we need more stronger female characters to end the sex stereotype? I see that they sort of did that with Michelle Rodriguez, but a mixed message is sent when we witness her obsession with Vin Diesel making out on her breasts. It's disgusting, and if this sexism continues in the sequels, then I will likely not enjoy the rest of the franchise.

For a film like this, you'd expect for the action to be super awesome, but no, it bores too. The first street race was almost unbearable with ridiculous motivations. The only scene that does dose a little bit of excitement is the climax where a hijack goes terribly wrong. For once, there was a scene in a near-terrible film that actually had suspense going thanks to the excellent stuntwork, and it even with a little emotions in there. To bad I had to wait till the end to actually feel like I was impressed with something.

The characters may be bad, but the acting was slightly decent. Though I hate that Vin Diesel's bad deeds were glorified, his macho roughness to the character at least made Diesel decent to hang out with. Paul Walker is slightly bland in his role, but I kind of liked the way he handled his tough character decisions. His chemistry with Diesel was one of the better moments of the film. Jordana Brewster actually tries her best in maintaining the only decent female character, but her acting is near-atrocious. And then you got Michelle Rodriguez, who brings the film to a very low level as mentioned earlier. I really wished that more focus was given to Chad Lindberg, who plays an ADD genius who's struggling where to fit in with Dom's gang. That aspect would have made this film a much better experience for me, cause it would have brought that emotional level that was severely lacking.

And lastly, the music score is 100% atrocious. Scored by music producer BT, the combination of hip hop and electronics creates a truly irritating experience that gives those sensitive to these horrendous genres a massive headache.

The Fast and the Furious is a good example at not to make an action film. Characterization is atrocious, though the acting is decent, the action and storyline bores, and the music and women stereotypes showcase the low point of Hollywood filmmaking. I'll still watch the sequels, but I'm no more or less optimistic on the other films.

"I owe you a ten-second car. ".