Despite the tragic death of series star Paul Walker in a car
crash back in November 2013, ‘Furious 7’, the seventh (yes, seventh) film in
the ‘Fast and the Furious’ series hits theaters this week. Seriously, who would’ve
ever thought that a film series that’s primarily about driving cars and
ridiculous stunts would be successful enough to produce seven films? Most film
franchises never get that far and even if they did, the films would really
start to get bad after a while. But it’s surprisingly the opposite case with
‘The Fast and the Furious’ films; they’ve actually gotten better as the series
has gone on. I’ll admit that I never really paid much attention to the franchise
during its early years. The only major element of it that was I familiar with
at the time was the multiple arcade game spin-offs, including the original
‘Fast and the Furious’ arcade game and its many follow-ups, including one for
‘Tokyo Drift’ and two ‘Super Bikes’ games that in hindsight don’t really
connect to the series that much at all; hell, the second game doesn’t even
carry the film series license. But anyway, I digress. I remember that it was
after watching the Super Bowl commercial for the fourth film that I actually
started to become interested in the franchise. I didn’t see the fourth film in
theaters but I did watch it on HBO and since then… I have to admit I’ve
actually become a fairly big fan of the franchise. So today, in honor of the seventh
film’s release and in memory of Paul Walker, I’m looking back upon this beast
of a franchise, from its humbler beginnings to its more recent bigger-scaled
efforts. It’s time to ‘Ride or Die’ as we look at the ‘Fast and the Furious’
films.
THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS (2001)
As someone who was first introduced to the franchise through
its later installments, I must say that it’s fairly interesting to see how far
‘Fast and Furious’ has come since it first started 14 years ago. Like with the
‘Harry Potter’ franchise, this is definitely a case where the series definitely
got better over time. That isn’t to say that ‘The Fast and the Furious’ isn’t
entertaining; it has a nice energetic pace that perfectly matches the, for lack
of a better term, fast nature of the story and a lot of the car stunt sequences
are pretty good. But with that said, you still have to admit that the film is a
definite case of style over substance. Sure, this film’s not completely
brain-less as there are some actual/legitimate bits of character development
here, namely between the main characters, street racer/criminal Dominic Toretto
and undercover cop Brian O’Connor, and Vin Diesel and Paul Walker work off each
other really well. But suffice it to say this is not a movie that you go into
expecting great writing. In fact, as many people have already pointed out, this
is basically just the street racing clone of ‘Point Break’. Despite this, the
first ‘Fast and the Furious’ film is still a fairly entertaining popcorn flick
even if, in some cases, it’s become a little dated. Ultimately, though, it
would take some time (about a decade to be specific) before this series really
started to shine.
Rating: 3.5/5
2 FAST 2 FURIOUS (2003)
First I’ll give you a few seconds to laugh at that
hilariously ridiculous title… done? Okay, moving on… so now we come to the
second film in the series, this one being directed by John Singleton, who had
previously been nominated for two Oscars for his work on his 1991 film ‘Boyz n
the Hood’. As for ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’, however, unfortunately it ends up being
the weakest entry in the franchise. Now despite what I just said, that doesn’t
mean the film isn’t entertaining, because it is. Once again, a lot of the car
stunts are really cool, especially the first highway chase and the scene near
the end involving a whole mob of cars coming out of one warehouse. Leads Paul
Walker and Tyrese Gibson have nice camaraderie with one another, with Gibson in
particular being a real stand-out due to his great comedic ability which was
put to even greater use in future films. Ultimately though, ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’
suffers from some fairly mediocre writing. Now to be fair, these films have
never been known for their writing anyway but here it ends up being rather dull
and generic, with a mediocre anti-climax and a generic villain. Plus, something
I didn’t mention in my review of the first film is that both of these films
have some rather poor/obvious CGI used during some of the racing scenes, namely
during close-up shots of the drivers. Thankfully, this was improved upon in
future installments. ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’, ultimately, is my least favorite entry
in the franchise. I don’t think it’s bad, but like I said earlier, we still
haven’t gotten to the series’ best installments yet.
Rating: 3/5
THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT
(2006)
After the first film which
featured all four of the series’ main group of leads and the second film which
only featured one of them, now we have ‘Tokyo Drift’, the only entry in the
‘Fast and Furious’ series not to have any of the main leads of the series appear
in a major role, save for a pretty awesome cameo by Vin Diesel at the end.
Because of this, ‘Tokyo Drift’ has basically been regarded as the most
forgotten entry in the series, made even more evident by the fact that it’s the
lowest-grossing entry of the series at the box office. But… it’s actually the
most underrated of the series and, dare I say, I have to agree with my friend
Augie in that I think this is even better than the first film. Sure, this film
may not have Vin Diesel or Paul Walker but its cast gets through it pretty darn
well without them. Plus, like with ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’, this film does give us
another standout character that would later become a major character in future
films, in this case Han (Sung Kang), despite the fact that he actually dies
during the events of this film. So why does he come back in later films? Well
that’s because, despite the fact that this was the third film released
chronologically, it actually takes place after the events of the fourth, fifth,
and sixth films, hence why Han appears in those films. ‘Furious 7’ will be the
first film in the series set after the events of this film. Yeah… wrap your
head around that one.
So what’s the main reason as to
why this film works so well? It’s because of director Justin Lin, this being
the first entry in the series that he directed. He gives the series a much
needed boost in quality in terms of direction while also giving the series an
edge that, in some cases, the last two films sort of lacked. This film also has
the added benefit of being set in a cool locale, Tokyo, meaning that this film
does manage to stand out even without the main leads in it thanks to its great
visual look. The whole concept of ‘drifting’, which is pretty cool, really
lends itself well to the fun action sequences that you’ve now come to expect
from this franchise. So overall, ‘Tokyo Drift’ is the one entry in the series
that really deserves more attention than it currently gets. If anything, you
shouldn’t ignore this entry in the series just because Vin Diesel and Paul
Walker aren’t in it. Sure, it may not necessarily be one of the series’ best,
but it’s still really entertaining. This was the first entry of the series that
really showed promise that the series could improve and you can thank Justin Lin
for that as he managed to make an incredibly memorable ‘Fast and Furious’ film
without any of the series’ main leads. But this would set the stage for those
leads to make one heck of a return to the franchise they helped start in the
first place.
Rating: 3.5/5
FAST AND FURIOUS (2009)
After nearly a decade since the first film’s release back in
2001, the main four leads of the franchise; Diesel, Walker, Michelle Rodriguez,
and Jordana Brewster all reunited for a new film in the franchise, ‘Fast and Furious’,
the second entry in the series to be directed by Justin Lin. But unlike the
following two entries in this series, ‘Fast and Furious’ has been the least
successful of the series in terms of critical response despite its commercial
success at the box office. It only has a 27% score on Rotten Tomatoes… but
overall I disagree with that rating. This is my third favorite entry in the
series to date and I as noted in the intro, this was the first ‘Fast and
Furious’ film that I ever saw, albeit on TV, not in theaters. This of course
was after I had watched the Super Bowl commercial for the film, the first time
that I really began to show interest in the franchise having initially not paid
any attention towards it during its initial run. Overall I view it as being
similar to the first film but with much stronger direction. Like I said before,
Justin Lin gave the series new life and now with this fourth film, it has
really started to shine thanks to the return of the main cast after they didn’t
play a major part in the second and third films. So with that said, why then is
this one not as liked by a lot of people? Well, from what I can tell, it’s
because they feel the movie is ‘too serious’ for a ‘Fast and Furious’ film. And
for the record I do see where they’re coming from.
The plot of this film revolves around Dom returning home to
LA after learning that his girlfriend Letty (Rodriguez) has been ‘murdered’ (I
use the term loosely because, well, you’ll see why when I start talking about
the sixth film), looking for revenge against those who were responsible. This
results in him crossing paths once again with Brian, who’s going after the same
people for the FBI. Last year’s ‘Need for Speed’ was a similar situation, being
more serious than both it needed to be and quite frankly what it was capable of
being given its premise of street racing. But here, I didn’t mind too much when
the film got serious because I do feel that there was some legitimate
motivation for Dom and Brian to stop the villains unlike with previous villains
in the franchise. Besides, there’s still a lot of awesome car stunts, from the
opening tanker sequence in the Dominican Republic to the final chase scene
taking place in the underground tunnels between Mexico and the U.S., though in
the case of the latter, I am aware that there was definitely a lot of CGI used
in that sequence, even though for the most part it at least looks a little
better than it did in the first two films. Regardless, this is still a ‘Fast
and Furious’ movie; it’s silly and over the top but still really fun to watch. Now
that the main cast was back, it was time for the series to go off in a new
direction which ended up taking us all very much by surprise.
Rating: 4/5
FAST FIVE (2011)
I think it’s safe to say that we were all surprised when we
saw that this film, the fifth entry in a series that was more successful with
audiences than it was with critics, was actually getting really great reviews
from critics. It has a 77% rating on RT, way higher than any of the previous
four films (which were rated 53%, 36% twice, and 27%, respectively). And
suffice it to say… they’re right. At the time of its release, ‘Fast Five’
immediately made a name for itself as the best entry in the series. It achieved
that by making the radical move of straying from the formula that had defined
the series since the beginning though ultimately it ended up being the right
move. Instead of its focus being on street racing, ‘Fast Five’ opts for a heist
storyline a la ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ and ‘The Italian Job’. Seriously, there’s only
one ‘street race’ in this entire film and they don’t even show it happening;
they cut away from it before it starts. The second major change is that, unlike
the previous films which only centered around 2-4 characters at a time, this is
the first in the series to have a true ensemble as the film reunites Dom and
Brian with nearly all of their primary allies from the previous films; Roman
(Tyrese Gibson), Han, Gisele (Gal Gadot), Tej (Ludacris), etc… And third, and
most importantly, there’s ‘The Rock’.
Yes folks, the addition of Dwayne Johnson in the role of DSS
agent Luke Hobbs, who’s out to catch Dom and his crew, is quite frankly the
best thing that could have ever happened to this series. Johnson really stands
out amongst the members of the cast in what is simply a stand-out role. But
with that said, this is probably the first entry in the series where the cast
in general really shines. A key theme of the whole series has been ‘family’ and
you really do see that with this cast as proven by their excellent camaraderie
with each other. The action sequences are much more fluid than earlier films
and of course, we got more fun and, in some cases, insane action sequences to
enjoy. There’s the opening scene where Brian and Mia break Dom out of a prison
bus, there’s the first fight between Dom and Hobbs, and who can forget the
scene where Dom and Brian literally drag a frigging safe through the streets of
Rio. And yes, at this point, the series has really begun to defy all sorts of
physics but with Lin’s solid direction, a terrific cast, and most importantly a
real sense of fun, ‘Fast Five’ easily stands out amongst the six ‘Fast and
Furious’ films that have come out. Again, who would’ve ever thought that at the
time of its release, the fifth film in this series would ultimately end up
being the best up to that point?
Rating: 4.5/5
FAST AND FURIOUS 6 (2013)
For my original review of the film posted on May 23, 2013,
click the link provided below;
At this point, I think it’s safe to say that this series has
now realized exactly what it is; it knows it’s silly and over-the-top and it
doesn’t care. It just rolls with it and doesn’t try to be something it’s not.
That’s the best way I can describe ‘Fast and Furious 6’; it’s ridiculous, fast-paced,
and it keeps defying physics with every action sequence it does. Plus, this
film pulls quite the heck of a retcon by having it be revealed that Letty
survived the events of the fourth film, albeit being affected with amnesia in
the process. But it’s still just so damn entertaining to watch. The same
positives that I noted for ‘Fast Five’ are once again present here; a terrific
ensemble cast that has terrific camaraderie, another batch of awesome action
sequences (the tank chase, that fancy flip car, the whole finale on the world’s
longest runway involving a crashing plane, etc…), and so on and so on. But at
the same time, there are some things in this film that I feel actually do
improve on the previous film. For one thing, this film has quite frankly the
best villain of the series to date in the form of Luke Evans’ Owen Shaw. His
whole philosophy of regarding the members of his crew as ‘expendable’ is a cool
contrast to the ‘family’ dynamic of Dom’s crew. Another great addition to the
cast is Gina Carano as Hobbs’ assistant Riley. Her fight scenes with Rodriguez
are some of the most badass moments in the entire film. Because of ‘Fast Five’,
this was the first entry in the series that I was really anticipating and sure
enough it did not disappoint in the slightest. In fact, this in, is my opinion,
the best ‘Fast and Furious’ film to date.
Rating: 4.5/5
Ranking time!
6. 2 Fast 2 Furious
5. The Fast and the Furious
4. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
3. Fast and Furious
2. Fast Five
1. Fast and Furious 6
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