film

The Fast and the Furious Series (2001 – 2015)

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Who ever thought that a gaudy, mindless Point Break rip-off would be the beginning of such a lucrative – and downright likable – franchise?

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I’m not a car guy. Never have been, never will be. I mean I enjoy a good chase or race or 3 million dollar car as much as anyone, but I don’t really care about turbochargers or shocks fuel injection or RPMs or anything even remotely car-like.  I don’t even really know a car works.  The most I’ve ever done was replace some lights and a battery.  So as I’m preparing to talk about The Fast and the Furious, keep in mind that it’s just coming from a guy who likes action movies, not a car nut.

At some point in the last couple of years I caught up with the series and watched the fifth film and a good chunk of the 6th.  I wasn’t even totally aware of the 7th one, but when I started seeing those little tire boxsets popping up on shelves a couple of months ago, I kinda had the urge to snatch one up.  I wouldn’t say it’s one of my favorite series ever, but nowadays, if you start talking about successful franchises that have stayed in theaters, the conversation quickly rolls around to bona fide tween fodder – Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Twilight…not a lot geared towards my demographic.  So yeah, I was kind of eager to sit down and follow this series, particularly because it had the unusual quality of devolving into markedly sub-par spin-offs and then turn itself completely around.

The Fast and the Furious (2001)

The year was 2001.  I was 16.  One of my best friends at the time was a total car freak, so I probably saw this movie sooner than I normally would have (could’ve been 2002 by then though).  Most of the time I couldn’t stand the movies that this friend of mine insisted on watching; he’d recently sent me over the edge with Bullit and the original Gone in 60 Seconds.  But I watched it, I liked it well enough, and life went on.  At some point though, I read in passing that the first film was “Point Break with cars.”  I laughed at the comparison, mostly because I knew Point Break well.

(See, my mom has always been a big fan of Patrick Swayze.  I don’t know how or why it got started, but I remember it from a young age.  Back when we had a place at “the Lake” where we went on the weekends, we spent years having a TV with just one channel and a VCR.  We had a whole cabinet full of tapes, but somehow or another, at least once a weekend during the spring and summer months, we whittled away an evening at the Lake watching Dirty Dancing.  I watched that movie for years without even really understanding the plot.  When I was a little older (but not very old) I remember my mom “allowing me” to be in the room while movies like Road House and Point Break were on.  These were a couple of the most violent flicks I’d seen at the time, so they stuck with me…that and the fact that my mom was a fan of a guy who shared a first name with me.)

So yeah, when I first heard the comparison, I was eager to watch The Fast and the Furious again and then rifle around for the old Point Break VHS.  Eventually I did, saw the comparison unfold immediately, and tucked it away in my brain as a nice little point to bring up should anyone ever bring up either film in conversation.

Looking back on it, The Fast and the Furious is still just Point Break with cars, and that’s not entirely a compliment.  The movie is paced well and it’s got some solid chases in it, but I never could get behind Paul Walker as the co-lead.  He wasn’t convincing as either a cop or a racer, a trend that would continue in subsequent films.  I don’t know how to describe it…the best way to put it is that he doesn’t take on much of a personality as this character.  He doesn’t exude enough badassery to be a cop or a crook, and he completely lacks any charm, charisma, or “cool,” especially next to Vin Diesel.  Not only does Diesel outshine him in every seen, he makes Walker appear straight up dorky.  

I won’t say I was entirely invested in the romance between Utah and Lori Petty’s character in Point Break, but we did get enough of it to see that there was something real between them.  In contrast, the blossoming relationship between Brian and Mia (Jordana Brewster) is almost too thin to be of any consequence.  Supposedly it’s a combination of his feelings for Mia and the “brotherly” bond formed with Dom that keeps Brian from turning Dom in, yet there’s no substantial emotional heart to the film, except perhaps between Dom and his crew, which is incidentally decimated by the end of the film.  Fast shoots for fun instead of the gritty tone of Point Break, emphasizing the brainless appeal of girls and the sounds of engines roaring rather than the existential ponderings of Bodhi (Swayze) and his gang.  And hey, that’s ok, but with the films being otherwise so similar, it definitely makes Fast look like the dumber younger brother.

Swayze definitely took on some questionable roles in his later career, and Diesel has certainly starred in his share of stinkers as well….but imagine a scene with Bodhi and Dom…  Dom is definitely smooth and cool and charismatic, but at the end of the day, he’s also fairly common.  Bodhi is also these things, but only when he wants to be.  For him it’s a means to an end.  With his extreme brand of individualism/non-conformity/hedonism or whatever you want to call it he might be clinically deemed a pyschopath.  Dom might be the better guy to share a beer with, but Bodhi is easily the bigger badass.

In case you need it spelled out for you…

There are some major differences as the films draw to a climax as a result of Fast’s “feel good” nature versus Point Break’s hard-hitting and extreme stance on life and living, but really, that’s the difference between PG-13 and R; that’s the difference between “possible sequel” and “finality.”

2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

A couple of years later, we got a sequel…but without Diesel.  This time we had Paul “Goofy” Walker paired with the typical loud-mouthed, wise-cracking, authority-defying, street-smart, know-it-all black guy.  I guess some movie-goers enjoy this trope, but seriously: it was old when Tyler Perry did it, it was old when Chris Tucker did it, it was old when Will Smith did it, it was old when Martin Lawrence did it.  Personally I don’t understand why the black community isn’t totally outraged since this is exactly the sort of portrayal that fuels stereotypes, but whatever.  At any rate, I don’t blame Tyrese as much as I blame the writers/filmmakers.  Obviously they couldn’t top Diesel so they didn’t even try, so instead we get a weird sort of “buddy cop” movie turned on its side.

There ain’t much to say about the second installment.  Not much good to say anyway.  We get the requisite chases and plenty of entertaining (annoying?) banter and while the film is competent and watchable, it isn’t much of a standout.  Walker and Tyrese have zero chemistry onscreen and there isn’t anything there to help prop up the rest of the movie except for perhaps James Remar, who continues to display the inexplicable talent of swinging between “normal actor” and “fucking horrible” from film to film.  He mostly takes on the role of “angry superior cop” in this flick, but he isn’t physically imposing enough to do so, and his insults are just aggravating screaming and completely devoid of humor.

Walker continues alternating between giving painfully wooden and borderline infantile performances…his character is totally a blank slate and Walker didn’t have the chops to bring him to life.  I mean how goofy does it sound when he says shit like, “yo I knew this cat from back in juvy!” (Ok I think he actually says that line in the 5th film, but he’s stalking about Roman/Tyrese.)  He just doesn’t have the capacity to deliver these street-life lines, and I can’t figure out why I’m the only one who thinks so.  In most other films that Walker had a prominent role in, he typically played a rich kid.  The Fast series should’ve done more to play up to this strength instead of having him trying to talk like Diesel and Rodriguez out of the blue.  I mean hell, he still could’ve been involved with all the street racing and all that, he just needed a character with a personality that he had the acting chops to convey properly.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

Tokyo Drift is easily the worst film in the series.  The worst by far.  This one doesn’t feature Diesel (except for a 2 second cameo at the end), Walker, or even Tyrese.  With no connection to the series except for one that was retroactively established, it feels the most out of place.  And not only is it out of place, it isn’t a very good movie.

The change in scenery to Tokyo doesn’t seem like a bad idea at first; after all, many racers are obsessed with Japanese vehicles and it would’ve been a great chance to explore street racing culture from a Japanese point of a view.  The filmmakers drop the ball though, and instead of a film about street racing in Tokyo, we see it all through the lens of an American who moves to Tokyo.  Our male lead, Lucas Black, is truly abysmal.  Yeah ok, he did some decent work as a kid (like Sling Blade) but his presence here feels even more like a fish out of water than Walker.  And couldn’t they have gotten a speech coach or something on set?  His very, very prominent drawl is all but laughable as he roams around in a world full of neon lights and Pocky.

The drifting itself is the only marginally redeeming factor of the film, though there’s not nearly enough emphasis put on this impressive feat and nothing more than a couple of throwaway lines about why this particular technique become such a phenomenon in Japan.  The focus of the movie quickly settles on tired cliches…boy chases girl, girl is tied up with a criminal (nevermind how this happens in the first place…), criminal turns out to be boy’s social rival, shit gets tough, good overcomes evil with positive thinking and shit like that.  Blah blah yawn.  The plot is formulaic, uninteresting, and 100% forgettable.

Truly it looked like Tokyo Drift would be the final film of the series, or at least the final theatrical release.  But holy shit, 3 years later, and our familiar cast returns!

Fast & Furious (2009)

In a virtually unheard of move, we have most of the important cast from a film (Diesel, Walker, Brewster, Rodriguez) reuniting 8 years and 3 sequels later.  Why the hell they didn’t go this route starting with film number 2 is beyond me, but better late than never, right?

Fast & Furious is one of the weaker sequels, though it does move us a step in the right direction.  In many ways, the status quo from the beginning of the first film is reset.  Brian is a cop again after the events of the second film, and Dom and a new crew are back to jacking trucks.  As Dom attempts to leave the life behind, he learns Letty (Rodriguez) has been murdered.  Brian is hot on the heels of a drug dealer, and it turns out that during Brian and Dom’s respective investigations, they run across each other for the first time in 5ish years.

This 4th film seems more interested in reestablishing its main characters than putting forth a compelling story.  The gravity of Letty’s “death” and the path leading Brian and Dom back to each either weigh a little heavy on the film and it’s not as fun as it should be.  It’s not much fun at all and I think the “murder mystery” drags down the pacing  and places  unneeded dramatic strain on our actors.  The chase in the tunnels is really cool though.

For a minute there, it feels like Fast 4 is going to end just like Fast 1 did.  And really, there’s no reason it shouldn’t have, except that the writers actually had the foresight to set up a sequel, and so with a couple of dramatic booms blams and bangs accompanied by quick cuts, we see Dom shipped off to prison…and the cavalry coming up behind him.

Fast Five (2011)

Did anyone see it coming?  Maybe, but I didn’t.  Fast Five totally blew me out of the water by being not just a decent and entertaining action movie, but a really awesome action movie, the likes of which we haven’t seen much of since the late 80’s.  Universal considers Fast Five the series’ transitional film, from street racing to heist film.  And a fantastic transition it is.

Walker is still a goof this time around, but it’s nice to see Diesel as the leader of the pack once again.  Fast Five feels a lot like a younger, more rugged, less intellectual, yet ultimately more relatable version of Ocean’s Eleven.  We have a nice montage of the assembly of the crew, which actually gives some of these secondary characters real purpose for the first time in the series.  I thought the 2 Spanish guys were a bit of a stretch, but aside from that, they did a good job taming down Tyrese, writing Ludacris’ character to not be like Tyrese, giving Han and Gisele enough screen time to make their story believable, and overall balancing the ensemble cast.  The movie takes some time to get going after the jailbreak, and I’m not sure I really buy all of Brian and Dom’s talk of “family”…I get it, but it feels like a broken record, and looking at Brian’s past with the crew, I’m not sure how or why he was finally so accepting of Brian.

If you’ve seen Fast Five, then you know what really breathed life/new life into the series – Dwayne Johnson as Agent Hobbs.  I know some people were (or maybe still are) skeptical of sticking a former wrestler in a film, but he’s actually a decent actor.  He’s tough and imposing, but also funny and likeable, and I think it was a great decision to put someone on screen to physical rival Diesel.  The two share some great scenes, and I’m glad that although Hobbs was a rival of the group, he wasn’t exactly their enemy.  The writers did a solid job of mining effective action scenes from the Dom’s crew / drug dealer’s / Hobbs triangle.

Without a doubt the best parts of Fast Five were the action sequences.  Not only were they the best of the series, but they’re some of the best action scenes to hit the big screen in years.  The heist of cars from the train was great, made even greater that this stuff was actually done with practical effects.  The scene with Hobbs in pursuit of Dom across the downhill shanty-town roofs of the Rio slums was not only well planned and executed, but exceedingly well shot.  But far and away, the most impressive part of Fast Five, is Dom and Brian dragging that giant vault around.  It sound stupid as hell on paper, but watching that giant steel cube bounce around through cafes and parked cars should be enough to get anyone’s juices flowing.  This chase also featured what was probably some of the best driving so far in the series…believable?  Maybe not, but the guys did an excellent job of transferring all that force and momentum exactly where they wanted it to use that vault as a weapon.  I don’t know how kind time will be to this film, but this ought to go down as one of the most inventive and just plain badass car chases of all time.

And then Hobbs caps off the film by nonchalantly executing the downed drug dealer before giving Dom & Co. a 24 head start and then laughing uproariously at the empty vault and the crew’s clever deception.  It’s just a damn cool movie.

Fast & Furious 6 (2013)

Topping Fast 5 was going to be a tall order, and I’m still on the fence about parts of Fast 6, but the filmmakers did retain the general vibe and feel of Fast 5 when going into its sequel.  This is the entry that revolves around Letty and Dom learning that she’s not in fact dead, and the crew going head to head with Owen Shaw’s paramilitary band of terrorists.

The plot is a little confusing and takes a lot of unnecessary twists and turns during its first half.  I know they wanted to build up Letty’s reappearance and needed a way to reassemble the crew after they all took their millions and went their separate ways, but unfortunately the movie spends some of this time spinning its wheels and eating up running time.  However, Johnson returns as Hobbs and takes an active role as an ally of Brian, Dom, et. al, making an even bigger impact during his second outing.

Our villain, Owen Shaw, is a bit too cartoony at times, and it’s definitely a huge stretch to think that a team of criminals would be handpicked to go up against military-trained terrorists, but ok, I get it, by the 6th film you can’t be dicking around with a rival street gang or the guy slinging crack on the corner.

The series really wanted to craft an intricate plot here, though I think it left a little something to be desired.  Fortunately, the action scenes were even more over the top this time around and we get a couple of extraordinarily well done scenes.  First there’s the giant bridge with the tank…they really milked this scene and got a lot of great moments out of it.  There’s the cable that catches the truck housing the tank and sends the tank flying forward, Brian’s jump, Roman nearly getting crushed by the tank…the entire sequence is full of great action.  The best part is of course at the end of the chance, where Roman’s flattened car is being dragged by the tank and Brian is trying to flip it over the edge of the bridge in order to pull down the tank.  As the plan unfolds in earnest, there’s a truly spectacular shot where Dom crashes his car into the guardrail, using the inertia to propel him across the gap between the inbound and outbound traffic, as he catches Letty, who’s been sent to deal with the car attached to the tank just as the car finally fulfills its role as anchor and abruptly jerks the tank upside down.  Again, these scenes are impressive on a variety of levels: the planning, the execution, and how well they’re caught on film.

The other great scene takes place over the lengthy and deliciously suspenseful climax.  A giant plane drags cars around and creative mayhem ensues.  I found the death of Gisele to be a bit distasteful, but then again at this point we also know that Han is going to die at some point (you’ll have to remember the chronology is a little strange; Han dies midway through the 3rd film, yet is featured in the 4th, 5th, and 6th films, meaning these all take place before the event of Tokyo Drift) and I suppose the closing of this storyline was inevitable.  It’s a shame though, because I thought there was still some room to explore the 2 of them as a couple.  Overall though, it’s an amazing, over-the-top finale with some solid one-liners (“you picked the wrong team, bitch!”) and the final bit with Dom crashing through the front of a blazing airplane was expected but no less dazzling.

The series officially cuts ties with street racing during this installment, and perhaps because of this it feels a little uneven. Fortunately the second half is better than the first, so by the end it feels like a mostly successful flick.

Furious 7 (2015)

And now we reach the latest film in the series, and what might be my 2nd favorite of the lot.  It almost feels like Fast 7 is a whole new beginning, or perhaps either the rousing conclusion to all that has come before.  The team is assembled yet again, along with Johnson in a reduced capacity, and 2 additional familiar faces. Action veteran Kurt Russell joins the crew as a shadowy and resource-laden ally, white Jason Statham appears as the brother of Owen Shaw from the previous film.

This film turns everything up to 11 – the cast, the stunts, the story – and it really feels like a defining moment in the series since this is the first (and so far only) film to occur after Tokyo Drift and we learn that Han’s death was not an accident, but a deliberate hit from Deckard Shaw.  The film does tread a lot of familiar ground this time, though the scope is appreciably bigger and we get a whole new villain in Statham.  This time it’s personal, extremely personal, and I like the emotional element.  It makes the characters feel a bit more real and less like hired thugs.

Walker’s role has shifted dramatically.  Although already a father in Fast 6, Fast 7 sees him in the throws of early fatherhood, trying to adjust to the more slow paced lifestyle.  I actually found this version of him significantly more believable; he was definitely able to convey that discomfort better than a half-cocked badass…or whatever he was going for.  The cast is truly the strong point here.  The team may be smaller (no Spanish weirdos, no Han, no Gisele) but it’s also more focused.  Tyrese (as Roman) goes outside the lines a bit too much for my tastes, in contrast to Ludacris who gives a more restrained performance while still retaining his street-savvy humor.  Brewster is hardly used, and neither is Johnson.  I’d love for Johnson to get off the sidelines, and although I don’t have much of a preference either way for Brewster, it would be nice to see her serve a purpose other than babysitting.

Furious 7 goes way out of its way to top any and all stunts done previously, and even the “little stunts” are pretty damn impressive.  Perhaps the most memorable scene  takes place early on where the cars parachute out of a plane to reach an unreachable location. Watching those cars fall through the sky is just amazing…even moreso after learning that cars are actually parachuting from planes – no CGI here.  A great chase follows and I love the scene where Brian runs up the side of the bus just as its falling.

And who can forget Dom taking whatever that sleek, experience car was through 3 huge glass towers?  An amazing visual experience.

The finale didn’t quite have the impact and flair that some others had; I guess the filmmakers were more interested in giving us a more military-style “battle” than something dealing strictly with cars.  It’s a good scene, especially with all the tricky tradeoffs of the hacker they’re trying to keep alive, it’s just not quite as memorable as the plane chase or the vault drag.

On a somber note, it was during the filming of Fast 7 that Paul Walker was killed in a car accident.  The crew took a break from production to initiate rewrites and use stand-ins – specifically Walker’s brothers – and I’m glad the issue was handled tastefully.  Brian walked off into the sunset with his wife, his kid, and a baby on the way, and it was a perfect exit for the character.  I’m glad that Brian got a happy ending, even if Walker’s was terribly tragic.

“Fast 8“?

So what’s in store for the series next?  By all accounts, it looks like at least 3 more films will be made.  Speaking on the recent-ish death of Paul Walker (he wasn’t a great actor, but it’s a shame he died), Diesel said that Walker “would’ve wanted it” and that if Fast 7 was “for Paul,” then Fast 8 would be “from Paul.”  Since then, a date of April 14th, 2017 has been set forth as the release for Fast 8.  Back in 2014, a chairwoman for Universal said that 10 films were likely to be made.  Since then, Johnson has also expressed interest in staying with the series and mentioned a possible spin-off with Hobbs.  Diesel later confirmed that a spin-off was “in the works.”

So I’d say that fans still have a lot to look forward to!  These won’t be the kind of movies that I’ll be running out to the theater to catch, though I’ll be more than likely to pick up a DVD whenever I first see it hit the shelves.  Will they be able to keep up the quality?  That’s anyone’s best guess…but I’d say chances are fair.  Despite my non-preference for Walker as an actor, it’ll be a different animal without him there, so it’ll be interesting to see what the filmmakers fill that void with.  I would say we’d see Diesel and Johnson tear-ass through one city after another, though if Hobbs is to be at the center of a spin-off, I can only wonder how prominent of a role he’ll have in subsequent installments of Fast.

There’s a lot of room for change here, and the series is at a perfect point to craft a neat little trilogy to round itself out.

Favorites – Best to Worst

1. Fast Five
2. Furious 7
3. Fast & Furious 6
4. The Fast and the Furious
5. Fast & Furious
6. 2 Fast 2 Furious
7. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

So what’s your take on this current heptalogy?  Are they just mindless entertainment, or damn decent mindless entertainment?  Let us know below!

Written by The Cubist