The Fast and the Furious Review
by Steve Kong (reviews AT boiled DOT sbay DOT org)July 17th, 2001
The Fast and The Furious (2001)
Reviewed by Steve Kong ([email protected])
Copyright (c) 2001 Steve Kong
URL: http://www.ultramookie.com/reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=2
When I first saw the trailers for The Fast and The Furious I grumbled at the thought of the movie. I mean, how much of a movie can someone make out of those annoyingly loud Rice Rockets that we see on the streets everyday? I wasn't even planning on seeing this movie in the theatres, it was at best a movie rental that I could fast forward through.
Am I glad that my younger cousins took me to see this movie in the theatres. This movie is everything that the Driving-Ms. Cage-Race-Movie "Gone in 60 Seconds" from last summer should have been. The adrenaline flows fast and with a wide open throttle in this film. There are only two reasons to see The Fast and The Furious: The cars and the stunts.
"What about the story?" you ask. There is one, but it's only really there to glue together some of the best driving stunt work I've seen in a long time. The story goes something like this: A cop (Paul Walker) goes undercover to infiltrate a gang of street racers lead by a guy (Vin Diesel). This gang leader could also be the leader of a gang of people who rob trucks full of electronic goodies in order to pay for car upgrades. There's also a love story that happens between the cop and the gang leader's sister. Not much story, but that's not really what's expected.
Is The Fast and The Furious a bad movie? It is, it's one of those bad movies that is so fun to watch that after awhile I feel bad for enjoying it so much : ) The comparisons between The Fast and The Furious and last summers Gone in 60 Seconds are expected. Whereas The Fast and The Furious moves at lighting speed, Gone in 60 Seconds crawls to the finish line. The Fast and The Furious is all about the cars and racing. Gone in 60 Seconds was self-conscious and wanted to tell and actually good story too. It's too bad that Gone in 60 Seconds didn't have a good story to tell. Sure there were exotic cars in Gone in 60 Seconds, but we hardly got to see them, except for some flashes near the end. And there were car chases in Gone in 60 Seconds, but only one real car chase that featured a kick ass Shelby at the end of the film - not much of a pay off for sitting through a long laborious film, if you ask me. How does The Fast and The Furious compare? Like night and day. There are car chases throughout. We get to see the actual cars, which were pretty damn impressive, throughout the film (I loved the Toyota Supra the Dodge Charger at the end). The makes of The Fast and The Furious know they have no story, so they just pump us up full of action. And this strategy works!
Don't go see The Fast and The Furious for the story or the acting. See it for the cars and the stunts. You won't be disappointed.
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Mookie Kong ([email protected])
Mookie's Gone Mad With His Digital Camera!
http://www.pbase.com/ultramookie
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