Fast & Furious

I did not mean for nearly a year and a half to pass since my last entry covering the Fast and Furious franchise. I apologize for keeping everyone waiting for today’s much anticipated blog covering the fourth film in the franchise, 2009’s Fast & Furious (trailer). I recalled seeing the initial previews for this and remembered being excited about Universal reuniting the four core original cast members, but also thought that it might have been too late because it seemed like at this point both Paul Walker and Vin Diesel’s careers were well into their decline and this was their last gasp for success. As we all know by now, F&F revitalized the franchise and transitioned the films from the underground street racing/car culture series into the blockbuster action/heist movies we embrace them as today.

As I alluded to in my Tokyo Drift review, F&F is where the timeline for the series goes sideways. Director Justin Lin stated in the commentary that even though Han was killed off in Tokyo Drift, he wanted to bring him back since he was a fun character so Lin has F&F take place before Tokyo Drift. Sure enough, Han is here, but only in the opening scene riding with Dom (Vin Diesel) and his crew on their latest rig heist which involves a semi with five(!) gas tanker attachments on a stretch of highway that is well over the one kilometer they proclaim (though later films will greatly outdo this exaggeration). The tanker heist goes sideways and leads to Dom abandoning Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and retreating to Panama. After some time passes Dom finds out Letty was murdered, and he comes back to Cali and reunites with his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) and FBI agent Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) to track down the Braga gang responsible for Letty’s murder.

I remember the scene introducing O’Conner chasing down a thug for information on his latest target in a high adrenaline foot chase that seemed ripped right out of a Bourne film. Apparently O’Conner has lethal Parkour abilities now that would multiply exponentially in his 2014 film, Brick Mansions. After eight years it was fun seeing O’Conner, Dom and Mia all reunite and within no time their chemistry was clicking with a plethora of callbacks to the first film. Yes, Dom still loves ‘family’ and crosses and O’Conner still loves NOS.

I mentioned in the intro F&F transitions the series from its underground street racing roots into the action/heist genre because the film is about half and half of each. There is a big street race in the middle of the film Dom & O’Conner participate in order to win an open slot in Braga. Lin stated in the commentary GPS tech was a couple years into ubiquity and wanted to different this race by implementing plenty of snazzy GPS CG effects throughout the race. Lin unapologetically went all in with the GPS effects here and while over-the-top, they enhance this race and make it stand out as one of the marquee races in the whole Fast and Furious franchise.

I recall Gal Gadot’s character, Gisele being more prominent in the later films, and completely forgot about her being a support character in F&F. She is working for the head of Braga, Campos (John Ortiz) and the film teases a relationship between Dom and her that I also completely neglected from my initial viewing. I could not help but chuckle at Lin’s comments in the commentary predicting big things coming for the future Wonder Woman.

Two big things I took away from my first viewing of this film nine years ago was that it made GPS seem like the coolest tech out there, and the intense tunnel chase scenes. There are two tunnel chase scenes in F&F, and they both paid off with memorable thrills. If you have the time make sure to check out the extra features that break down how the crew constructed their own makeshift tunnel which enabled them to pull off the insane stunts entirely with practical effects. F&F closes with O’Conner trying to get Dom’s name cleared for helping takedown Braga, only to see Dom still get carted into a bus for lockup…that is until O’Conner goes rogue and pulls up with his own crew to bust Dom off the prison transport bus in one of the best endings of the entire series. I was in disbelief on Lin’s commentary track thoughts on the ending: ‘Yeah, we left it open-ended, we’ll see what happens if folks want to revisit this.’ As box office records and many sequels would later indicate, people went on to revisit the films with aplomb.

I referenced Lin’s commentary track a few times already, and even though it is a solo commentary I highly recommend giving it a listen since it is full on nonstop factoids and anecdotes from the filming. Aside from the commentary there is another hour and a half of extra features. There is a 20-minute short film, Los Bandolerors, that sets the stage for the beginning of F&F, and while it features most of the cast and has a couple little moments referenced in the film, I would not say it is requisite viewing. There are eight extra features with most of them showcasing the cars and stunt work. The two extras I would recommend the most are Getting the Gang Back Together and Races & Chases. The former has the cast reflecting on the past films and how it felt to reunite for this film and the latter is the aforementioned extra that breaks down how the crew made the awesome GPS race and tunnel chases possible. The Pitbull music video for ‘Blanco’ is skip-worthy, but do not skip through the gag reel because it has a killer spoof at the end that left me rolling!

I should mention like the prior films, on this F&F re-watch, I experienced it with the Giant Bomb commentary track where their staff does another commendable job highlighted with Alex’s vast knowledge of the series shepherding Dan’s earnest negligence of it. I enjoyed Fast & Furious much more than I remembered. The latter films upped the ante so much more with their casting and stunts that it made me forget how this film got the movies going in that direction. If you have somehow not seen this installment in the films yet, go out of your way now to correct that wrong!

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs
3
12 Angry Men (1957)
12 Rounds 3: Lockdown
21 Jump Street
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: Civil War
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Christmas Eve
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
The Condemned 2
Countdown
Creed
Deck the Halls
Dredd
The Eliminators
The Equalizer
Dirty Work
Faster
Fast and Furious I-VIII
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Gravity
Guardians of the Galaxy
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
Indiana Jones 1-4
Ink
The Interrogation
Interstellar
Jobs
Joy Ride 1-3
Man of Steel
Man on the Moon
Marine 3-5
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
Mortal Kombat
National Treasure
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
The Replacements
Reservoir Dogs
Rocky I-VII
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
San Andreas
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Shoot em Up
Steve Jobs
Source Code
Star Trek I-XIII
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
UHF
Veronica Mars
Vision Quest
The War
Wild
Wonder Woman
The Wrestler (2008)
X-Men: Days of Future Past