The Fast And The
Furious
2001
Director: Rob Cohen
Starring: Paul
Walker, Vin Diesel, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, Rick Yune, Matt
Schulze, Ted Levine
Rated PG-13
Ask any racer, any
real racer. It doesn't matter if you win by an inch or a mile; winning's
winning.
~Dominic
Toretto
Fast & Furious Drinking Game: Take a sip of your beverage every time you
see or hear the word “NOS”
So, Iron Man 3 AND Star Trek Into Darkness come out this
month and I’m choosing The Fast And The
Furious franchise to cover with my newest retrospective? I decided it’d be fun to go into one of these
where I’m not the longstanding fan of a series.
Also one I am pretty much a complete novice too. I saw the first film back in the theater in
2001 and again on DVD when it arrived later that year. I haven’t watched it since. And as the sequels kept coming out, I kept
thinking they looked pretty dumb. Well,
I’m 12 years older, a more mature person and more astute in my film
criticism. I’d like to give this series
a fair shake. I’m gonna give it a
go. Will I become a fan by the end? Will I hate this series even more for going
through all this? Well, that’s the fun
we’re about to have.
The first film is just about the same as I remember it. It’s a very “bro-tastic” film. This isn’t really the type of film made for
me. The primary story of the film is
pretty mediocre and is accompanied by lame directing and poor performances. It really is Point Break with cars. Paul
Walker even channels his inner Keanu for his performance. It’s quite uncanny. Vin Diesel is pretty funny as he takes his
voice insanely over the top at any hint of conflict. My sister and I joked that they intentionally
hired Ja Rule to rap on the soundtrack because he sounded like Vin Diesel
yelling.
This isn’t a really deep film and we’ve covered the
narrative pretty much in the Point Break piece. So, the film showcases street racing and a
little bit of highway action. The street
racing in particular isn’t all too amusing.
It’s just cars driving in a straight line going fast and pushing NOS
buttons. I should at least be able to
recommend these scenes and they’re just not very fun to watch. The semi “battle” near the film’s end is
notable and pretty well done, but that’s it.
The film still continues after. I
shouldn’t have expected any better, as this film comes from one of Hollywood’s
most dull and uninspired directors, Rob Cohen.
Like I said, this is a very “bro-tastic” form of
escapism. Guys are all shallow hardened
badasses and the girls are “hot pieces of ass” trophies to be won. However, I’m surprised that the 2 women
playing actual roles in the film ARE allowed to be human and treated with some
respect. Michelle Rodriguez is fun to
watch and is very strong and assertive.
She’s able to fight for what she wants and apply herself and take lead
when necessary. The film never goes out
of its way to tell us “for a girl” with either of the characters and their
skills, but I could see a few scenes maybe being taken that way.
The film’s villain aside from Toretto, I must mention is
Ricky Yune. We previously were graced
with his craptastic thespianism in the James Bond retrospective with Die Another Day. Don’t worry, he’s still horrible here. I’m hoping we don’t run into him again
(hopefully Olympus Has Fallen doesn’t
become a franchise!)
Next Up: 2 Fast 2 Furious
Its got a dumb title, Paul Walker came back and nobody else,
Tyrese, Eva Mendes, and Cole Hauser as a LATINO? This sounds promising…
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