The Fast & the Furious Blu-Ray Review

Rated PG-13 (Violence, Sexual Content and Language)

Running Time: 1 Hour & 47 Minutes

Cast:

Vin Diesel-Dominic Toretto

Paul Walker-Brian O'Conner

Michelle Rodriguez-Leticia ‘Letty’ Ortiz

Jordana Brewster-Mia Toretto

Rick Yune-Johnny Tran

Matt Schulze-Vince

Johnny Strong-Leon

Chad Lindberg-Jesse

Jeffrey Atkins (Ja Rule)-Edwin

Noel Guglielmi-Hector

Ted Levine-Sergeant Tanner

Thom Barry-FBI Special Agent Bilkins

Stanton Rutledge-Muse

Reggie Lee-Lance Nguyen

Directed by Rob Cohen

 

Little did they know that this film would be the only thing keeping their careers alive...

Note: Part of "The Fast and the Furious Trilogy" Blu-Ray set.

Boy, Hollywood sure makes a lot of pointless sequels and no other franchise is as pointless as “The Fast & the Furious.” The original film was released during the summer of 2001 and raked in the dough at the box office with $207 million worldwide against an estimated $38 million production budget. Seeing it as a goldmine, Universal made a sequel, and another, and another, until now we have “Fast Five” (Why do the titles keep getting shorter? Is the sixth one just going to be called “Fast”?), the fifth installment to be released on April 29, 2011, the weekend before the official summer movie season begins. “The Fast & the Furious” is the epitome of style over substance. Sure, the cars and women are good looking but it all adds up to a vapid and yawn-inducing experience due to its paper-thin plot and poorly developed characters.

Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker) is an undercover cop working for an LAPD-FBI joint operation to investigate the world of illegal street racing. There have been a number of high-profile, semi-trailer truck hijackings where millions of dollars of merchandise has been stolen. Brian is to find the perpetrator and bring him or her to justice before the truck drivers take matters into their own hands. Using his job at an aftermarket auto parts store known as The Racer’s Edge, Brian makes contact with Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), an elite street racer who leads a motley crew that includes his girlfriend, Leticia ‘Letty’ Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez), his two friends Vince (Matt Schulze) and Leon (Johnny Strong), and mechanic Jesse (Chad Lindberg). Brian enters into an illegal race with Dom and two other racers but loses. The police arrive and Brian manages to get into Dom’s good graces when he saves him from being apprehended. Dom accepts Brian as part of the team and begins helping him repair a badly damaged 1994 Toyota Supra as repayment of his debt for losing the race. Brian at first suspects Dom’s rival, Johnny Tran (Rick Yune), of committing the hijackings but when he turns out to be innocent, evidence points to Dom as the perpetrator. However, Brian’s mission becomes complicated when he falls in love with Dom’s sister, Mia (Jordana Brewster) and he becomes torn between bringing Dom to justice and betraying his new-found friends.

That little summary makes “The Fast & the Furious” a lot more complicated than it seems and in fact, the story is so simple, uninspired, and generic that it could only be written by thirteen-year-old boys driven by testosterone. I was not expecting something that was going to win Academy Awards but when you start finding the street races themselves boring, you’re in trouble. I’ll admit the races are slickly directed with confidence by Rob Cohen (and they’re packed with scantily-clad women) and those who have a strong interest in cars will come away with a smile but they all start blurring together and look the same by the second hour. Still, they’ll keep you awake but once the wheels stop spinning and the ‘plot’ takes center-stage, everything falls apart because nothing is compelling at all. The film harps about brotherhood and sticking by your friends no matter who they are and what they do but the relationships are so superficial that I could care less about what happens to them. The editing is of the MTV-variety; there are lots of quick cuts, flashy effects, slow motion, and a soundtrack that will only appeal to urban audiences. I find myself struggling to say much about “The Fast & the Furious.” It’s purely an audiovisual experience and if that’s what you’re looking for, than you’ll come away satisfied but for everyone else, this is an empty, soulless experience that is so pre-occupied with looking ‘hip’ and ‘cool’ to the detriment of everything else.

None of the cast is required to do any actual acting other than to look good on-camera. That being said, Vin Diesel’s larger-than-life presence and deep baritone voice make the film somewhat bearable to watch. Paul Walker is just the pretty, blond boy who can’t act if his life depended on it. He seems to speak all his dialogue as if he were some low-level gangster. Michelle Rodriguez is once again playing the tough chick but she leaves little to no impression in her underwritten role. While Jordana Brewster does bring a wide-eyed innocence, she is nothing more than the token love interest dressed as if she’s going to a party.

“The Fast & the Furious” arrived on Blu-Ray in a trilogy box-set in 2009 that includes “2 Fast 2 Furious” and “The Fast & the Furious: Tokyo Drift.” The picture quality looks excellent, if overly processed. Slight film grain is present and while flesh tones lean toward a ‘hot’ orange, the colors are very vibrant thanks to the numerous cars on display. Detail is excellent whenever someone pops the hood and we get to see all the doodads inside. This is a very loud film with heavy bass due to its soundtrack and the constant revving of engines. If you have a nice surround sound system set up, this would be nice demo material to show off to your friends. There’s a healthy dose of special features. There’s an audio commentary or if you so please, you can activate a feature where an icon would show up and if selected, it takes you to a short video clip of Cohen commenting on the scene being shown. The making-of is only a paltry eighteen minutes, followed by various fluff pieces on the editing, visual effects, deleted scenes and music videos.

“The Fast & the Furious” was released on June 22, 2001 to mixed reviews, with 52% on Rotten Tomatoes. Some critics accepted it as a guilty pleasure while others just wrote off the film as being another dumb summer flick. As mentioned at the beginning, the film was a box office success with $207 million worldwide, enough to warrant a sequel or two (or four). People do enjoy these films but I’m not one of them. It’ll take a lot more than flashy cars and under-dressed women to impress me. “The Fast & the Furious” offers little else to anyone other than action junkies and car fanatics, and despite the well-made car chases, it is just not enough to make this film rise above mediocrity.

Final Rating: 2 out of 5

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