Fast & Furious
Year: 2009
Director: Justin Lin
Starring: Jordana Brewster, Vin Diesel & Paul Walker
Runtime: 107 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 19/01/22
Director: Justin Lin
Starring: Jordana Brewster, Vin Diesel & Paul Walker
Runtime: 107 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 19/01/22
The first three entries to the Fast Saga were all quite different from each other, despite all being centred around street racing. The first film mixed the street racing with an undercover cop storyline involving truck heists, the second film mostly dropped the street racing stuff in favour of something that more resembled a police procedural, and the third film did a total 180 on that and solely focused on street racing with no other distractions. So where does the series go from there? Especially because the only one that got any kind of major traction was the first film. Well, back to basics I suppose.
Set five years after the events of the first film, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) returns to Los Angeles following the murder of his wife Letty (Michelle Rodriguez). Helped by his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster), Dom is hell bent on tracking down the killer, who is a henchman for a crime boss named Braga.
Meanwhile Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) has been reinstated to the LAPD and is following the Braga case. When he cracks an informant, Brian infiltrates Braga’s gang and works alongside Dom to unmask the mysterious Braga and identify Letty’s killer.
Set five years after the events of the first film, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) returns to Los Angeles following the murder of his wife Letty (Michelle Rodriguez). Helped by his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster), Dom is hell bent on tracking down the killer, who is a henchman for a crime boss named Braga.
Meanwhile Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) has been reinstated to the LAPD and is following the Braga case. When he cracks an informant, Brian infiltrates Braga’s gang and works alongside Dom to unmask the mysterious Braga and identify Letty’s killer.
This fourth instalment to the series, simply titled Fast & Furious, is in many ways a return to form for the series, but in a lot of ways also falls at the same hurdles the original film did. It also pushes the series considerably further into the action genre by including much larger and more outrageous driving stunt sequences, as well as full blown combat sequences and shootouts. In a lot of ways, this is what 2 Fast 2 Furious should have been as it feels much more faithful to the original film than either of the previous sequels, but that’s not always a good thing.
Much like the original film, the best thing about Fast & Furious is the chemistry between Diesel and Walker. However even that isn’t good enough to support the film this time around because the story drives a wedge between the two characters in the form of the first films ending, with Brian revealing himself to have been a cop investigating Dom the whole time. The two don’t trust each other anymore, and the whole film is spent repairing the relationship these two men once had, which whilst engaging, means that for a lot of the film we don’t get the same kind of excellent interactions that were present in the original film.
Fast & Furious also brings with it many lessons learned from Tokyo Drift thanks to director Justin Lin returning for this film. Driving sequences are much more exciting and memorable than they were in the first film, and thanks to the increased action have the ability to be more than just racing this time around. The film opens with an explosive truck heist sequence, reminiscent of the first films opening, but on a much grander scale with considerably higher stakes. It sets the tone for the whole film very well, unfortunately though the film never actually manages to top that opening scene in terms of thrills and edge of your seat excitement. The closest it manages is a street race to close out the first act, but from that point on it sinks back into the awkward slump that 2 Fast 2 Furious had where it focuses too much on police drama and gang crime.
Much like the original film, the best thing about Fast & Furious is the chemistry between Diesel and Walker. However even that isn’t good enough to support the film this time around because the story drives a wedge between the two characters in the form of the first films ending, with Brian revealing himself to have been a cop investigating Dom the whole time. The two don’t trust each other anymore, and the whole film is spent repairing the relationship these two men once had, which whilst engaging, means that for a lot of the film we don’t get the same kind of excellent interactions that were present in the original film.
Fast & Furious also brings with it many lessons learned from Tokyo Drift thanks to director Justin Lin returning for this film. Driving sequences are much more exciting and memorable than they were in the first film, and thanks to the increased action have the ability to be more than just racing this time around. The film opens with an explosive truck heist sequence, reminiscent of the first films opening, but on a much grander scale with considerably higher stakes. It sets the tone for the whole film very well, unfortunately though the film never actually manages to top that opening scene in terms of thrills and edge of your seat excitement. The closest it manages is a street race to close out the first act, but from that point on it sinks back into the awkward slump that 2 Fast 2 Furious had where it focuses too much on police drama and gang crime.
The side characters also aren’t particularly interesting in this film, with the exception being Brewster’s Mia, who delivers a fantastic return for the character and manages to provide an incredible amount of depth to her in a very short time span. This lack of a memorable expanded cast beyond Brian & Dom makes working through Fast & Furious’ somewhat slow revenge plot quite tedious and boring at times.
It feels like Justin Lin knew where to take the Fast Saga, return to Brian & Dom, and expand upon the premise of the first film. But the execution isn’t nearly as finessed as it was for that original outing, and in my personal opinion nowhere as well as he managed to do with Tokyo Drift. Whilst Fast & Furious marks a step in a completely new direction for the Fast Saga, it certainly starts things off with a stumble rather than a sprint. If you enjoyed the first film in the series then you’ll likely get some level of enjoyment out of Fast & Furious, but for everyone else, I think you’ll have checked out long before the credits roll.
It feels like Justin Lin knew where to take the Fast Saga, return to Brian & Dom, and expand upon the premise of the first film. But the execution isn’t nearly as finessed as it was for that original outing, and in my personal opinion nowhere as well as he managed to do with Tokyo Drift. Whilst Fast & Furious marks a step in a completely new direction for the Fast Saga, it certainly starts things off with a stumble rather than a sprint. If you enjoyed the first film in the series then you’ll likely get some level of enjoyment out of Fast & Furious, but for everyone else, I think you’ll have checked out long before the credits roll.