Fast and the Furious, The (Film Collections) (Blu-ray)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

 Tweet

---

The Fast and the Furious

I love cars. Especially fast cars. I own a ´99 Camaro Z/28 that I purchased new and have tweaked to get more performance that what was delivered in its factory skin. She´ll run the quarter mile in the twelve second range and my zero to sixty time is in the fours. She is a full-blooded American muscle car (albeit built in Canada) and the rumble of the 350 cubic inch LS1 V8 motor and Flowmaster exhaust is a beauty to behold. I love nothing more than to throw the Hurst power shifter back and spin the tires as I move into second gear. Formerly, I worked in Carlisle, Pennsylvania – a town where car shows bring people in from all over the United States. Corvettes at Carlisle and the GM Nationals are my favorite events. Owning a mighty American V8 in Carlisle didn´t attract much attention, but sometimes I got a brotherly wave into traffic from a fellow car enthusiast. Now I sit waiting just a handful of weeks out from taking delivery of my brand new 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS and once again my blood starts boiling with the temptation of speed and power!

My peaceful existence was shattered with the release of "The Fast and the Furious." A town where classic cars and American muscle reigned supreme was quickly invaded by mass numbers of tuners. Small Japanese cars with nitrous oxide canisters and grapefruit sized exhaust tips led the assault. At first, they did not have much power and they needed to use the nitrous to stay in the rearview mirror of the big Chevys and Fords that were commonplace. Then, they became faster, but the craze started to hit Saturns and Chevrolet Cavaliers. Stories spread about the tuner that could take a Camaro and it wasn´t long until driving a Camaro Z/28 in Carlisle seemed like a call to any surrounding tuner to challenge me at a red light. Where I could previously drive peacefully through the quiet town of Carlisle, I was soon pestered and irritated by these annoyingly loud tuners at every red light. A craze had started and now, every teenage boy seemed destined to convert an old Mitsubishi Eclipse or Honda Civic into a brightly adorned rice rocket.

That being said, "The Fast and the Furious" has been a watershed film for the automotive industry, especially for those specializing in aftermarket parts and customizations. Car makers are building cars that are geared to the ´Tuner´ market and horsepower continues to soar. Though my beloved Camaro is in the middle of a production hiatus, the front wheel drive, four cylinder sports cars have flourished. There are not many films that have an impact on culture, but "The Fast and the Furious" is one such film. Street racing reached near epidemic status after the release of this film, cars became brighter, louder and faster as teenage boys strived to mimic and emulate the cars seen in the film. Not since the old hot rods of the Fifties, has teenage street racing been as showy or prevalent as the couple of years that followed the 2001 film. The muscle car era of the Sixties and Seventies was all about power and speed, there was not a lot of showmanship. However, the ´Tuner´ craze has made street racing more than just bragging rights.

The film itself was not a great achievement in filmmaking or storytelling. The plot is relatively thin. Neither Paul Walker nor Vin Diesel delivers notable performances and there are many mistakes in both factual information and continuity in the picture. This is most definitely a popcorn film for the masses and not one that necessarily strives to entertain gear heads and hard core street races. "The Fast and the Furious" brings street racing to the public and not to a target audience involving its subject matter. It is watered down and not deeply technical; making it far more accessible to a bigger audience. "The Fast and the Furious" is a cliché heavy "Undercover cop befriends the bad guy" story that just happens to involve fast and colorful cars. It is a high octane action film that has enough race scenes and stunts for us car lovers to cheer, but doesn´t become overbearing on its audience by discussing dual cam engines and the differences between a turbo charger and a super charger.

Paul Walker is undercover cop Brian O´Conner. He is hired to infiltrate the street racing gang led by Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and uncover the truth as to whether or not Dominic is responsible for some daring truck jackings that are putting the truckers into a violent uproar. Toretto is a legendary street racer that is surrounded by a very talented crew and a lovely sister Mia (Jordana Brewster). Toretto´s tough girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) is at times a bodyguard, than a love interest. Toretto´s friends pose a problem for O´Connor, as they are not ready to accept him with open arms and his own street racing skills are not quite up to par with their abilities. Only by saving Toretto from capture by the police does O´Connor gain Toretto´s trust. Once he gains the respect of the driving kingpin, O´Connor must find out if Toretto is the one responsible for the daring hijackings.

The film is pretty predictable. Johnny Tran (Rick Yune) is introduced as a competing villain and foil to have the audience believe that Toretto is not the mastermind of the black cars that are involved in the hijackings. It is a quick ploy that is easily ignored and it doesn´t take long for the audience to figure out that O´Connor and Toretto are going to butt heads and that they will discover the truth behind each other´s facades. The audience can also safely predict that the race will feature the fast Supra that O´Connor builds to aid Toretto and a rather powerful black Dodge Charger. Fortunately, for all of the complete lack of cleverness, the film delivers the expected climax with entertaining results. I found myself cheering Toretto because he was driving the black Charger and hoping he would be able to ride off into the sunset.

It is with Vin Diesel behind the wheel that "The Fast and the Furious" succeeded. Directed by Rob Cohen, the film was a successful venture, but was a film solely intended to entertain and not educate or expand anybody´s horizons. Vin Diesel is a man with charisma and the role of tough talking Dominic Toretto was a perfect skin for the strong actor. Paul Walker was a worthy partner for Vin Diesel throughout the film, but he alone would not have been able to carry the film. This was proved with the Diesel-less sequel. For as much as those brightly colored tuners had agitated me and brought me headaches when I drove my Camaro to work, I do enjoy the film that was responsible for their being. Once or twice, I had to let my adolescent side take over and show them what a souped up Z/28 can do to a horribly overmatched rice rocket, but I generally just smiled.

2 Fast 2 Furious

Without Vin Diesel and any intelligence, "2 Fast, 2 Furious" is a perfect example of a sequel that should never have been. However, with the huge popularity of the first film and the entire generation of street racing spawned by the first picture, there was no way Universal was going to not release a sequel. Director Rob Cohen did not return either. He and Vin Diesel decided to head off and film "XXX" instead of a follow-up to one of Vin Diesel´s first bona fide hits. Some would say that the actors were not the stars of the first film and that Cohen was not the architect. They would proclaim that Mitsubishi and Toyota were the real stars and architects of the film. I avoided travelling to the multiplexes to witness this second film and ignored it when it was released on DVD. There was always a thought that maybe those who believed that the cars truly were the stars of the show were correct and when HD-DVD arrived, I was finally able to witness for myself if Paul Walker and a few cars could drive a feature film.

Adding Tyrese Gibson, Eva Mendes and Ludacris is not enough to replace Rob Cohen and Vin Diesel. Even dangling a Mitsubishi Evo VII, Nissan Skyline and vintage Camaro Z/28 wasn´t enough for me to love this film. Yes, the cars were more impressive and numerous than the first film. I´m not a fan of foreign sports cars, but I have a great deal of respect for the Mitsubishi Evolution. If I ever had to purchase a four door car, the Evolution would be it. There was a powerful Z/28. I enjoyed the race with the old muscle cars, though they felt greatly out of place in this follow-up. It wasn´t just this race scene that didn´t quite seem to fit in the grand scheme of things; practically the entire film was a mish-mash of action sequences and car races that tried to form the semblance of a plot, but resulted in an incoherent mess that should have sunk this franchise and not resulted in a third film.

In "2 Fast, 2 Furious," Brian O´Connor has found himself on the other side of the law for allowing Dominic Toretto to escape with a car purchased through police funds. He is forced back onto the side of the law and into another undercover gig to infiltrate a drug lord in Miami and stop drug trafficking that seems to be handled with high performance cars. O´Connor strikes a deal and looks to an old friend to be his partner in the undercover operation. Convict Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) has lost his brotherly love for O´Connor when O´Connor became a police officer. Still, he is the man that O´Connor trusts the most and a very qualified driver. The FBI agrees and give the two men two very high performance cars to aid them in their operation to bring down the druglord.

Their point of contact and entry into the druglords team of drivers is through the gorgeous latino Monica Fuentes (Eva Mendes). She is another undercover agent, but has been doing whatever it takes to earn the respect of druglord Carter Verone (Cole Hauser). O´Connor and Pearce must compete with other drivers hoping for a piece of the action, including Tej (Ludacris). They are given a high speed test to prove their merit and ultimately must find a way to bring down Verone, but also determine if Fuentes was fully compromised and save her from a potentially nasty fate.

The action and racing in "2 Fast, 2 Furious" is indeed fast and furious. It is however, heavily cliché ridden and quite unimaginative. Some of the themes and situations from the first film are rehashed and reused in the sequel. The writing and direction does not match up to the original, though I have more overall respect for John Singleton as a director than I do for Rob Cohen. Singleton created far better driving sequences for "Four Brothers" than he did here. Perhaps a loud and fast paced Hollywood action film is something that Singleton should have avoided in the case of "2 Fast, 2 Furious." He is a talented director and my belief is that this film was well below him and the final product is not indicative of his talent, but on the material and requirements provided.

There were a few scenes I did enjoy in "2 Fast, 2 Furious." I certainly enjoyed watching the big bad American muscle cars whip up on the foreign sports cars. They are magnificent beasts. A few others were entertaining and Eva Mendes is stunning. But in the end, this film is simply a mess and without Vin Diesel and the freshness that was associated with "The Fast and the Furious," this is a cookie cutter sequel that tries to be bigger and badder than the film is succeeds, but is among the numerous other sequels that just tarnished the good name of their pedigree.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

Paul Walker wasn´t enough to propel the second film into the stratosphere. At least, not in my opinion. For whatever the reason may be, Walker was not included in the cast list for the third film in the lucrative "Fast and Furious" franchise. To return to my opinion, this didn´t seem like anything that would hinder a third outing of ultra colorful and highly tuned imports. Instead of keeping in line with the undercover cop storylines of the first two films, the filmmakers decided to take the story to the lands where the cars came from – Japan. Of course, with its general lack of long straight-aways, crowded streets and winding roads, the Japanese style of racing greatly differs from that of North America. Racing no longer has anything to do with long straight-aways and tire smoking burnouts; it has to do with the concept of drifting, where speed does not necessarily warrant the winner, but style and attitude reigns supreme.

I admit that I find drifting to be rather intriguing. I´m a straight-line kind of guy and my nearly 400 horsepower Camaro doesn´t take to turns too well. I´ve done a few autocross events and routinely find myself falling behind much slower Mazda Miatas and Honda Civics. Autocross has turns and bends throughout the course and very little straight-aways. In turn, I suffer on my times and do not do very good. On a racetrack or straight track, I can outrun Corvettes, Mustangs and a few older Vipers. Two entirely different worlds and my big engine, rear wheel drive car don´t do very good in the one where turning is required. Drifting is neither of those worlds and a tremendous amount of horsepower to the rear wheels is a good thing. The basic concept is that enough power can allow cars to slide and smoke their way through turns and take bends as close to walls or other cars as you can. Drifting is controlled insanity in the guise of power slides. It is an entirely different style of street racing and "Tokyo Drift" does for drifting what the first film did for underground street racing.

The third film does not find any stars headlining the credits. Lucas Black is the only true familiar face and is known for his performances in "Jarhead" and "Friday Night Lights." The majority of the rest of the cast are Japanese actors. Of course, there is one great cameo at the end of the film that nicely ties "Tokyo Drift" into the canon of the franchise. In the film, Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) nearly destroys a housing development during a street race of his old American rust bucket muscle car. He is sent to Tokyo to live with his military father and must live by his father´s rules, which includes not driving a car. Soon, Sean finds himself banging heads with some cocky Japanese drifters and is taken under wing by a legendary drifter who promises to teach him the craft in order to bring down a rival´s reputation.

The first two films featured an undercover cop trying to bring down criminals. Here, a good ole American boy needs to bring down the legendary Yakuza. The Yakuza can make the Italian and Russian mobs look tame in comparison. When I discovered that the filmmakers decided to get away from the undercover cop plotlines, I was excited. However, the franchise does not stray too far away by having a teenage boy bringing down the Japanese mob. Many of the same plotlines and storylines from the first two films are again rehashed, but against the Tokyo city life and drifting, the film feels far more original than "2 Fast, 2 Furious," even if it is yet another basic rehash of the first film. This third picture does not contain nearly as many flashy and interesting cars as the first two films. Drifting isn´t necessarily a place for ultra expensive vehicles. In fact, older Toyota Supras and Celicas are preferred cars. However, a vintage Ford Mustang does find itself with a Toyota motor; something that seems very blasphemous.

I liked "Tokyo Drift" far more than I did the second film, but not quite as much as I did the original entry in the series. Lucas Black was just as wooden as Paul Walker was in his performances, though some of the Japanese actors were fairly good. The cars were again the story in the film, but this time the concept of drifting helped elevate their appeal. Drifting and the awkwardness the main character faced while trying to adjust to Japanese society were the two elements that kept my interest. This is another example of a film that only strives to entertain and for the most part, I felt "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" held my interest and entertained me. Its story won´t win awards and I won´t recommend you start to dissect the plot. However, if you like fast cars and want introduced to an entirely different aspect of street racing and see the tuners in their ´natural environment,´ then "Tokyo Drift" is an experience worth experiencing.

Video:

All three films in the series are presented in 2.35:1 widescreen. They are generally identical to the former HD-DVD releases. The first film in the series is mastered using Microsoft´s VC-1 codec, with the two sequels using AVC MPEG-4. These had all been VC-1 on the deceased high definition format, but I could not notice any differences in direct comparison. The overall quality of each of the films is very good and while I don´t think they are consistently reference quality impressive, there are moments when each picture is quite gorgeous. This usually involves the brightly colored cars, but the detailed locations sometimes struck me as looking very good. Compared to DVD, the "Fast and the Furious Trilogy" is a vast improvement and far more detailed and colorful than how the murky looking standard definition releases appeared.

I found "The Fast and the Furious" to be the best looking picture of the trilogy and the early street race scene where the neon-lit and painted car bodies are showcased under the dark Los Angeles skyline is still a sight to behold. The CGI-created moments are very nicely done and look as close to perfection as anything in the trilogy can look. Where the first film really stands out is how well detail holds up under low lighting. Black levels are very good and this is a colorful and solid mix. "2 Fast 2 Furious" is another highly colorful affair, but I didn´t feel the transfer was as detailed as the first film. The exterior locations looked quite good. As is the case with the other two films, skin tones look very good. The final film again showcases the overly colorful car, but I found the level of detail to drop off a smidgeon in some of the darker scenes. The cars are the best looking elements of the films and nobody is going to be disappointed with how good these hot rides look.