Force Fed Films: Fast & Furious (2009)

So after admitting my excitement for Fast 5 coming out this weekend, Puneet wouldn't allow me to see it without having seen all the previous films. That just left Fast & Furious, the fourth film in the series. A lot of characters return from the very first film in this one as well as some others. This movie is actually a prequel to Tokyo Drift, as is Fast 5 if I've heard correctly. I didn't have very high expectations considering the overall quality of the 3rd film, but I did expect to still enjoy it regardless as that's been the case with all of them for me. Hit the jump and we'll find out how it all turned out.


So how do I know this is a prequel? Well, certain characters from Tokyo Drift that shouldn't be around anymore show up in Fast & Furious, and I've also seen them in the trailers for Fast 5. I'm not going to say who, but anyone who's seen the movies will already know what I'm talking about. And it's a good thing they're kind of ignoring Tokyo Drift, because that's easily the worst in the series, but this character is super cool. Unfortunately they aren't around for long and it's implied that they're going to check out what's happening in Tokyo and then that's it. It was cool to see the cameo, I just wish they were around longer.

Michelle Rodriguez is back! Wait, what did they just say... ?!

This leads me to the other characters that were so highly touted as returning from the first movie. Obviously the biggest addition back to the cast is Vin Diesel as Dominic Torreto. He's great and he's back, that's all I need to say here. There are also a few ladies returning, namely Michelle Rodriguez as Tilly and Jordana Brewster as Dominic's sister Mia. I was really excited to see more of Tilly in this movie, and the film starts off with a really good action set piece featuring her quite prominently. However, that's all we get of her because right after that scene we hear news that she's been unceremoniously killed off screen. Let me tell you, that sucks! She's on the cover of the movie for crying out loud! Lame.

Oh yeah, maybe you want to know what the story is? Basically it's a revenge tale of Dominic Torreto to avenge Tilly's death. This brings him back to America where we see his sister again and he encounters FBI agent Brian O'Conner, played by Paul Walker, once again. They're both after the same man, so they reluctantly team up, again. I actually didn't mind the story, as plain as it sounds. I wasn't expecting much after all. All I really wanted was a lot of racing, and that's what I got!

Dominic and Brian team up again when it turns out they're after the same man

The action scenes of racing and chases were generally all really good. My favorite was the race through the city streets, but then that got balanced out with a really boring race through some mine shaft tunnels. My reasons for this are simple. In the city, we can see a lot, and you get a wide variety of shots and stunts. In the tunnels, you can barely tell what's going on, it's almost all bad cg, and it's all the same thing of avoiding the walls and posts. There is another use of the tunnels later on that worked out better the second time around, but that's simply because not everyone makes it cleanly through this time.

So I'd say Fast & Furious turned out pretty good. It was pretty close to what I was expecting, lots of high speed action, lots of Vin Diesel being a badass and not much else. While I was disappointed that Michelle Rodriguez was barely in the movie, it was good to see most of the cast back from the first film, even the sister. What I'm even more excited about is that a certain character from Tokyo Drift that had even less screen time than Rodriguez looks like they'll been in Fast 5 quite a lot. I hope I'm right, cause that combined with everything else could make Fast 5 the best of the whole series!

LET'S RACE!