FURIOUS RANKING

 

So, I came into this series a nay-sayer.  As a longtime film aficionado, I scoffed and felt myself above a series like The Fast & The Furious.  It was junk, garbage, for morons, bros, idiots.  It was stupid and Americans were dumb for dumping their money into it.  All these presumptions I could make from only having seen one film in the entire franchise.

Forgive me, I was wrong.

FAST & FURIOUS RETROSPECTIVE - PART VII: FAST FIVE

Fast Five

2011

Director:  Justin Lin

Starring:  Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Dwayne Johnson, Sung Kang, Tyrese Gibson, Chris Bridges, Matt Schulze, Gal Gadot, Elsa Pataky, Joaquim de Almeida

Rated PG-13

Running ain’t freedom.  You should know that

                        ~Dominic Toretto

It took 5 tries, but the Fast & Furious franchise put out a great movie!  And a super awesome one at that!  Ditching the forced racing aspects in favor of a pure action movie with the guise of a heist plot, the series is able to fully breathe and become a summer popcorn thrill ride that allows you to enjoy and not care too much about detailed semantics of its plot.  The film boasts an ultimate team up of who’s who from the entire series, giving those who’ve been paying attention some rewarding character moments while at the same time not reminding the viewer of the shortcomings of those previous films.  The cast gels and carries this thing along quite nicely.

FAST & FURIOUS RETROSPECTIVE - PART VI: FAST & FURIOUS

Fast & Furious

2009

Director:  Justin Lin

Starring:  Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, John Ortiz, Jack Conley, Sung Kang

Rated PG-13

Still a buster

            ~Dominic Toretto

At its open, Fast & Furious takes a noticeable step up from his predecessors.  There’s a lot of good intention here and what appears to be hard work.  The film starts guns ablazing, but never manages to retain the promise of these opening moments.  The rest of the adventure is somewhat watchable but really just skims the mediocrity set in the in the first film only done by a better, more imaginative craftsman.

For Your Listening Pleasure - TOKYO DRIFT Commentary on OUT NOW WITH AARON & ABE

Once again I return to OUT NOW for more commentary action.  This time coinciding with my TOKYO DRIFT retrospective.  I'm glad the guys brought me on board for this one, as I enjoyed it more the 2nd time around.  A film that people might instantly turn their nose up at, but its not bad at all.  This is also one of the funnest commentaries I've been a part of.  A lot of good laughs (hopefully for you too).  Enjoy!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

FAST & FURIOUS RETROSPECTIVE - PART V: TOKYO DRIFT

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

2006

Director:  Justin Lin

Starring: Lucas Black, Bow Wow, Nathalie Kelley, Sung Kang, Sonny Chiba, Vin Diesel

Rated PG-13

I’ve got nothin’ but time

                        ~Dominic Toretto

Oops, so yeah…spoiler alert…but the movie is 7 years old and 3 sequels ago.

Three years following 2 Fast 2 Furious, we get what appears to be an attempt at a reboot or a one-off.  The film appears to be completely free of the universe and events of the first film until the final seconds tick down and we are given a shocking connection.  This film was apparently originally written for Paul Walker to return, but when he was busy, they reworked it to have the character of Shawn Boswell.  And boy, do we actually kinda wish Paul Walker was back (look what this series is doing to me! Haha).

FAST & FURIOUS RETROSPECTIVE - PART IV: BETTER LUCK TOMORROW

 Before there was Tokyo Drift, there was-

Better Luck Tomorrow

2002

Director: Justin Lin

Producer: MC Hammer

Starring: Parry Shen, Sung Kang, Jason Tobin, Roger Fan, John Cho, Karin Anna Cheung

Rated R

Rumors about us came and went fast and furious

                        ~Ben Manibag

Huh?  How does this fit in with the Fast and the…what?  You told me Tokyo Drift was next! No, I’m not doing a Justin Lin retrospective.  This film very much indeed is a part of the Fast & Furiverse (if I coined that...make sure I get credit).  This is the origin story of Tokyo Drift and beyond’s Han Lue.  Granted, this is not his story per se, but he’s a main player in the group we’re following.

FAST & THE FURIOUS RETROSPECTIVE - Part 1: POINT BREAK

 

Ah, my famous franchise retrospecting has returned!  And now, debuting on my own my own site is THE FAST & THE FURIOUS retrospective!  Join me looking back as we edge closer to FAST & FURIOUS 6 opening May 24th.

Point Break

1991

Director: Kathryn Bigelow

Starring:  Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, Lori Petty, John C. McGinley, Gary Busey, James LeGros

Rated R

You gotta go down.  You crossed the line and people trusted you and they died.

                        ~Johnny Utah

So…you’re doing a Fast & The Furious retrospective and you’re starting with Point Break?  Of course I am.  The genesis of the first film in the Fast & The Furious franchise begins here.  The outline and overall narrative of Point Break is almost beat for beat repeated in The Fast & The Furious.  You’re basically trading in surf boards for street racing cars.  Watching them back to back, its even more apparent.