THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS Review

"I live my life a quarter mile at a time...for those ten seconds or less, I'm free."

Truth be told: I actually didn't have any plans on writing a review for The Fast and the Furious, until the Cannes Film Festival announced they were doing a midnight screening at their event. And realizing that it's been 25 years since this action flick came out, I figured it was time to give my thoughts on it. As a long time fan of the franchise, I enjoyed revisiting this entertaining, popcorn movie even if the story and characters aren't that original or nuanced.

The story revolves around Brian O' Connor, an undercover cop, who's being tasked to infiltrate the local LA street racing community and find out who's been involved with hijacking semi-trucks. He's introduced to Dominic Toretto, the ring leader of this community, and forms a friendship with the new guy. Along the way, the undercover agent falls for Dom's sister, Mia, as well as getting caught in the middle of Dom's rival racing gang led by Johnny Tran. Can Brian figure out who's been committing these crimes without blowing his cover? Or will he have to break some rules in order to deliver some "street justice"?

First off, this premise sounds insanely familiar to Kathryn Bigelow's 1991 film, Point Break. And while it is an almost beat-by-beat story, I'll give credit to The Fast and the Furious that they do have their own identity that makes it stand out on its own. From its electronica, hip-hop, industrial music to the character's wardrobe, it stands out as a time capsule of the early 2000's that reminds me of the films I grew up watching. Another element I appreciate is while the film does have a "liar reveal" trope (which I'm personally not a fan of in this type of narratives), it's quickly rushed over as the film realizes that's not the focus of the story; the focus is on the cars and the street racing world.

The film works enough due to the chemistry with the main group. Even if their characters are one-dimensional and flat, the cast work quite well and makes me invested just enough in what happens next. It also helps you have actors who've provided decent performances in the past, such as Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, and play these characters believable in a serious way without winking at the camera. Granted, this isn't the kind of dialogue writing you'd see actors present in a Shakespeare workshop within an Acting 101 class, but it gets the job done on what it's trying to do: be a stupid, fun, summer blockbuster that entices the teenage demographic.

In terms of the driving set pieces, I really like that for the most part they're done in-camera, especially the opening heist at night. I also appreciate the finale, starting with the semi-truck hijack gone wrong all the way to the final minutes of the film. Even the quarter-mile race at the end has some good tension building. To this day, I'm still impressed the crew were able to pull these stunts off without relying so heavily on CGI, which has sadly been a common trend for modern films, including the later entries.

If I have anything else to say, it's quite impressive to see a franchise start off as a "wannabe" Point Break knock off to finding its own identity down the road, by being an over-the-top, spy action film with enough convoluted, soap opera drama for your mama. Now as a F&F fan, I'll admit the series did descend into ridiculousness as it went along (both good and mostly bad), but I'm at least grateful we got a lot of fun elements out of it. If anything, it's always enjoyable looking back at a franchise like this, providing a launch pad for people like Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, and Michelle Rodriguez; even co-writer, David Ayer, got his jumpstart doing rewrites for this before writing Denzel Washington his second Oscar win for Training Day.

The Fast and the Furious provides enough fun and entertainment in a cheesy way, that I can forgive its shortcomings with the lackluster dialogue, uneven characters, and derivative story. I understand if people aren't into this franchise like I am; in fact, this isn't even my favorite entry of the series. If anything, it's amazing to see how far these films have gone, because this first installment could've been a one-off film that ended up as a forgotten time capsule of the early 2000's era. But in a sea of underwhelming franchises that can't even make it past their seventh film without losing their juice, it's a miracle this one even carried itself this far 25 years later. This entry may not be a masterpiece, but it's not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon, eating pizza and drinking a bottle of Corona.

🍿SCORE = 70 / 100