Plot: An undercover cop infiltrates a gang of street
racers in order to stop truck thieves.
Review: It has already been 15 years since the first
Fast & Furious movie came out. In that time a lot has changed. The focus of
the series went from street racing to heists and stopping international
threats. And with at least 3 more movies to come, who knows where the series
will go.
The
Fast and The Furious started off with fairly humble beginnings. The story was
basically the same as Point Break, but instead of surfing it was focused on the
world of street racing. While the story was one that we have seen before, the
racing world was different enough that it felt fresh.
The
acting, surprisingly enough, was not that bad. Before he became a low-voiced
one-liner machine, Vin Diesel actually spoke like a normal person. It was
strange going back and seeing him this way, it was a pleasant surprise. Paul
Walker was fine too. I wasn’t expecting an Oscar worthy performance, but he did
what was necessary. The rest of Diesel’s crew were there to play their role,
nothing more. The villain, played by Rick Yune, was bland and uninteresting; he
and his gang were just a distraction. In the grand scheme of the movie they
were unimportant and showed up to add a threat that was easily resolved. Of
course it was necessary in this kind of movie to have some sort of villain, but
I would have preferred he have some meaning and menace, instead he was just
there. The truck driver near the ending heist kicked more ass than any these
guys did.
The
street racing was thankfully real for the most part. There was some terrible
blur effect CGI going on during some of the races, but when they pulled the
camera away and showed the cars actually racing it was real. All of the crashes
looked good and the races were well done.
Of
course, as in any Fast & Furious movie, there were huge leaps in logic. How
could a hundred or more flashy and loud cars be able to close down a ton of
roads in order to have a race and the cops only respond 20 minutes later? Even
though the movie was hip at the time, there were many outdated elements. The
music featured the likes of Limp Bizkit and Ja Rule. The main items that were
being stolen from the trucks were DVD players. All of this though just made it
more nostalgic and fun to watch.
This
movie was surprisingly much better than I thought it would be. When I first saw
it back in the day, I wasn’t a big fan but it grew on me. It was just one of
those fun dumb movies you can enjoy if you don’t think too hard. Another thing
I learned, there was an after the credits scene! They beat Marvel to it.
Score: 7.5/10
