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.

REVIEW: FURIOUS 6

Furious 6

2013

Director: Justin Lin

Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne THE ROCK Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Jordana Brewster, Gal Gadot, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Gina Carano (please take this movie and retire from acting with it), Luke Evans

Rated PG-13

You’ve got some serious balls, man.

                        ~Letty Ortiz

The Fast & The Furious franchise stays the course in its newest installment.  All the good will from Fast Five is carried over.  This film escalates the action by going bigger and taking stakes up a notch as it rightfully should.  I don’t think it sails by Fast Five, but it manages to come up to par with it.  And…it’s a one damn fine thrill ride of a movie.

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.

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.