Fast & Furious

Fast & Furious

Eric Harris - www.canneltoncritic.com

Fast and Furious

Fast and Furious

Starring:

Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez

Genre: Action

Rated: PG-13

Fast and Furious is the 4^th installment in the illegal street car racing series; It also marks the reunion of the 4 cast members from the Original. The plot is Familiar Dom (Vin Diesel) is hiding from the law in the Dominic Republic with his girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) When the heat in the Dominican gets to hot Dom eventually finds his way back to LA where he and FBI Agent Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker) infiltrate a drug smuggling ring run by the infamous and never seen Braga.

From the Title you can tell there is not going to be any originality here, If the best they can do is omit the two the’s. This movie has so many problems with it and is so bad it almost falls into the awesomely bad category. The acting is wooden, the dialog is horrendous and the story not only lacks originality it has so many plot holes that it isn’t even logical. The Cardinal sin of Fast and Furious though has to be the lack of race scenes, the few that there are, are so dark and poorly shot that you can not even tell what is happening.

Here are a few highlights of this films nonsense. The beginning of the movie is supposed to bring you back to the original where they are hijacking a moving semi, why do they not just block the road and take the truck? That would make to much sense. Instead they have an elaborate plan that requires trucks driving in reverse and liquid nitrogen to steal gas tanks. You would think they would have learned before that there plan is terrible and that it will go wrong just like it has many times before. They don’t, it goes bad and we are not surprised. The biggest offence here is the scene could have been lifted from the first movie, you have seen this before.

After this the best part of the entire film happens, they finally kill off Michelle Rodriguez’ character “Letty”.  Michelle Rodriguez brings a whole new level of terrible to each and every one of her roles; Regardless of the film it’s the same character and that character should never be on film, so the less of her the better.  Now that Letty is dead Dom goes back to L.A, He wants to find out what happened to her. While this is going on O’Connor is trying to infiltrate Braga’s racing ring so he can bring down there drug smuggling operation. O’Connor gets the name of David Park which he needs the FBI’s resources to narrow down and find so he can use Park to get to Braga. Dom just goes to the scene of Letty’s car crash and by looking at the skid marks he is able to figure out exactly what happened and finds a clue that leads him to the only mechanic in all of L.A that worked on the car that was in the accident with Letty. Dom goes to the mechanic which leads him to David Park, in two minutes Dom is able to do what the FBI is taking weeks to work on. Dom is so good he gets to Park before O’Connor.

We find out then that Letty was driving for Braga and that Park can get Dom in on a qualifying race. When Dom wins the race they take his fingerprint and run his background and learn what a bad dude Dom is. Yet they miss that his girlfriend ran drugs for them and they killed her.

We learn the FBI is looking for Dom and they stake his sister’s house out, he goes there multiple times but they do such a good job that he can work in the garage without them finding him.

There is another scene where O’Connor has a tracking device in his car the FBI is tracking him and has a visual on a surveillance camera of where he went. The tracking device is killed, the car goes in the back of a semi truck  then the truck leaves the warehouse and the FBI cant figure out where O’Connor went(They cant spot the giant semi leaving the warehouse they are watching) .

Dom and O’Connor escape from some of Braga’s goons in a Hummer the FBI spots them from a surveillance camera even though they didn’t know where they were or what they were driving. (They can’t see a truck leave a warehouse they are watching but can find 2 people driving a vehicle they didn’t know they would be driving in a location which they were not aware of)

Dom finds Letty’s phone and dials the last number that was called. It turns out the last person she talked to was O’Connor and that she was working with the FBI. She made a deal that if she helped them out they wouldn’t press charges on Dom.   So somehow she was able race for Braga, but O’Connor who she was working with doesn’t know who park is and has to find a way to get in with Braga even though he was able to get Letty in. They let Letty race rather than put in O’Connor Originally. (Apparently The FBI allowed Letty to go undercover even though she isn’t in the FBI and they have O’Connor who’s job it is to go undercover, and they forgot how they got her in the race so they had to find a new way to get O’Connor in the race).

The FBI also makes a deal with O’Connor that if they can get Braga ,Dom can go Free, They get Braga but that doesn’t matter Dom still gets sentenced to jail.

This is just a short list of the ridiculousness of this film, If it was worse it could be a really good movie as it stands it’s just a loud movie with very little racing.

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Fast & Furious

Basic Premise:

Dom and Brian are back and just like in the first movie, they are on opposite sides of the law. Brian is a fed and Dom is a con on the run but they are both after the same thing, a drug running crime boss who took out one of their own. It's high octane action like only the Fast & Furious franchise can deliver.


Review:

Let's start this off (I think I say that a lot in these reviews) by saying this is an out-of-sequence movie. The appearance of Han at the beginning places this movie (timeline-wise) between 2 Fast & 2 Furious and Tokyo Drift, which kind of sets you up for a lack of suspense since you know Dom shows up at the end of Tokyo Drift.

Other than that, this movie was great! It's everything you would want in a Fast and Furious movie -- cars, scantily clad women gyrating to loud music, racing, chasing, and crashing. Ever so often the characters felt the need to leave the cars behind and beat each other up the old fashioned way but this was mostly a car movie.

I love the car sequences. The racing and the chasing were much more dangerous this time around. Anyone trying these stunts (even though there is a disclaimer at the end of the movie that should be at the beginning) won't have to worry about seeing home ever again... or an open casket funeral either.

But is wasn't the racing that made this movie for me, though that's what I went for... and Vin Diesel. It was the crashes. I know that says something about me, but the crashes weren't just a car running into something and the driver toddling away. When the cars crashed, you weren't even sure if the stunt man ended up walking away. It was the type of destruction you can't fake on a computer. Or if they can, then computer animation has come a long way and I'd like to see them use some of that tech in other movies.

Good movie and a good start to the summer movies (I know it's not summer yet, but it's coming). If I didn't have other movies to watch (Dragonball in a few days), I would seriously go see this one again. As it is, I have to wait for the DVD before I can bask in Vin some more. *dreamy sigh*

Recommendations: Star Trek (2009), Avatar, 300

D. Renee Bagby<br />
Building New Realms of Passion<br />
http://dreneebagby.com

Fast & Furious

Vroom vroom!

Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech!

Kapshhh! Bumpadabumpadapumpada kaboom!

"Fast & Furious" plays like one of its race scenes. Frenetic, exciting, and for the most part easy to follow. It's the kind of movie Hollywood was made for.

Vin Diesel, a terribly limited actor, is perfect here. His throaty drawl and slow, look-at-me delivery can make even mundane lines feel, well, like this:

"I'm goin' to the storrrrrre..." Vin looks the female lead up and down suggestively. "...to pick myself up..." His mouth twitches with the slightest hint of a smile. "...a bag... of icccccce."

It would be ridiculous in a serious movie, but in a ridiculous movie it's compelling.

Paired with Vin is the uber-bland Paul Walker, known for staring straight ahead and speaking in monotone. Strangely, his utter lack of personality makes him a good fit with Vin, who has 'tude to spare.

The plot doesn't matter a hell of a lot. Vin's an outlaw with a code of honor, Walker's a Fed still trying to find his. The two formed a macho bond three movies ago, when definite articles were involved, so when they both end up hunting the same drug lord, it doesn't take much prompting to pool their efforts.

"Fast & Furious" has lost love, secrets, betrayals and crises of conscience, but most of all it has racing. Sexy, reckless, eight-hundred horsepower racing. Spoiler alert: cars flip in this movie. They crash. They explode. Drivers leap out of their own vehicles to commandeer a rival's. A movie like this is to actual racing (even actual drag-racing) what pro wrestling is to the Olympic Greco-Roman style.

And what's wrong with that? Absolutely nothing, provided you don't mind walking out of a theater drenched in testosterone and high-performance engine oil. I don't.


SCORE:

How Accomplished: 54/100

How Much I Liked It: 77/100

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Fast & Furious

The original "Fast and the Furious" was well fast and dumb but also sleek and entertaining and I even thought the sequel was fun. The third one didn't even have either of it's leads and was set in Tokyo and was a snooze. Now comes a fourth one with it's now established stars in Diesel and Walker coming back and trying to cash in on that magic form the original. It is back to the basics but I don't even care this time because this seems like a scene for scene rip off of the original. What a way to exploit some more cash out of an overdone franchise. This movie is dull, lifeless, stiff and there is not one point in any of this film where I had fun. Diesel and Walker don't even feel like they want to be here. Their acting is so lifeless and stiff and there is not really a credible villain. The only thing saving it is Michelle Rodriguez who I find tough, sexy and somehow I can never keep my eyes off of her but she leaves somewhere in the beginning. Now make a Fast and Furious movie around her and maybe we got something. "Fast & Furious" is now available on DVD.

Vincent Snavely

Fast And Furious Review

Hands down Fast & Furious 4 is one of the best movies to release so far this year… It brings together all of the previous Fast and Furious films even the odd but decent third installment Fast & Furious: Toyko Drift…

First and foremost I must say that the cast did there thing, they all gave Oscar winning performances. Vin Diesel played the hell out of his part as Dominic Toretto.. But this time they really showed his dark side. He’s not the same Dominic from the first one, this time around..he’s P I S S E D…

After a tragic loss, Dominic is out for blood but the man he’s after happens to be heroin importer…And not only is he a heroin importer but he’s one of the big boys in the eyes of the FBI and Agent Brian O’ Conner…. Yup O’ Conner is back and yet again on Johnny’s Laws side….Or is he?
Drifting away from The Fast & The Furious sequel curse, Fast &  Furious changed the style up a bit. This time they played more on the relationships between characters rather than the typical corny get the bad guy action plot…Trust me it makes for a better overall movie…That and a couple great car scenes…Director Justin Lin you’ve outdone yourself…Every action scene had me on the edge of my seat. One in particular damn near made me stand up out of my seat….I don’t mean to spoil the movie but this was some on this craziest shit that I’ve ever seen. I won’t say any names but one of the characters managed to jump out of his car into another guys car just as his car runs into a wall….You have to admit that’s some sick shit..
In between the crazy car races the sexy Jordana Brewster steals the attention and even gets behind the wheel….What a sight, Jordana Brewster grinding the gears….Definitely wouldn’t mind seeing it again.
Seeing that I  have only positive words towards this movie it’s obvious that I would recommend going to see this movie….Check out the trailer and decide for yourself.

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