Fast & Furious: Now With 10% More Lame

What you need to know from the get-go with "Fast & Furious" or "The Fast and the Furious 4", is that this is not the campy, street racing movie you may have been hoping for from the original movie. This 'street racing' movie has only one race, that just happens to be on the street! How do you make a movie who's bread-and-butter for its core audience is essentially transformed into off-road racing in Mexico? The stunts, when they are not overly CGI-ed are executed well. Unfortunately, the movie is rife with CGI show pieces and cultural stereotypes, which will take the viewer out of any modicum of entertainment you could garner from an extended Reggaeton music video.

Director, Justin Lin had to have played the video game "Burnout" and maybe even "MotorStorm" prior to shooting this monstrosity. The one real race in the movie is set in the heaviest traffic in one of the busiest portions of Los Angeles. However, the fastness & furiousness of the average police patrol car can not seem to manage arriving when all of the NOS injected excitement is going down. Speaking of that one heart pounding, edge-of-your seat 8 mile race. The CG department gets a humongous thumbs down for making an already 'videogamey-type' movie more over the top, by pushing the GPS directions to the forefront of the race. There was a crash in the scene and all I could think of was..."Yeah, that will get you ample points to unlock a couple achievements".

This review will focus on the racing aspect of "Fast & Furious" for a couple reasons. It is the only catalyst putting the average movie goer's booty in the seat. It also was what this franchise [and I use the term loosely] was built upon. The story is absolutely laughable, and this is coming from someone who was a fan of the original movie and Tokyo Drift! Seeing Vin Diesel pout every four minutes while dressed as if his mom was taking him to Sears for their family portraits, may entice those who want a good laugh at the movie's wardrobe designer. Without getting into anything too spoiler-rific, Vin Diesel's character 'Dom' has to come back home to L.A. [where he's wanted for murder] from the Dominican Republic [don't worry...he drove] because someone is responsible for the death of a loved one. I should also tell the uninitiated that if you hate watching criminal stereotypes, wherein if one sells drugs: they are both Mexican, a tacky dressers and peruse the occasional cockfight; you may want to pass.

You want to blame the actors for delivering the driest lines in the history of the series [and I seen the one with Tyrese in it]. They can not be wholly at fault. The writing is completely underwhelming. Whoever drew up the plot for having a 'street racing movie' majorally in the desert of Mexico, bravo. There is a gratuatious makeout session between the characters played by Paul Walker and Jordana Brewster, which was edited in a way where you would swear Vin Diesel's character totally heard and/saw everything! There are cheesy, manly scenes where Paul Walker and Vin Diesel are just staring off into space. There are "funny-for-the-wrong-reasons" one liners that will make the movie more tolerable, if given you are in the mood to completely give in to a feature that not only does not entertain, but in some cases...insults, then you may want to watch this movie...on DVD.

The stunt coordination does need to be commended for having one of the coolest stunt sequences that involves 'Letty' [Michelle Rodriguez] rob a fuel tank truck. The real stunts in Fast & Furious stick out, not only because there are cool stunt people out there risking their lives for our entertainment, but the stunts shine in comparison to the garishly obvious phony CG scenes. The few cars in the movie are cool. Seeing muscle cars and imports with fresh paint jobs kept me interested for about 15 minutes longer than I would have been.

"Fast & Furious" is bad for fans of the series, but really bad if you have given up on it. I give "Fast & Furious..."

A Copy Of Burnout Paradise, because clearly they are fans.

Comments

[Alphonse]

after the first movie, the others has fall in quality and action, become more like a video game than a real action movie, the special effects take place of the risky stunts, I know that is dangerous but is more excitement see something that you know is real to something made in computer.