Movie Review - The Fast and the Furious (2001)

[Dave Gray]

The Fast and the Furious (2001)

Premise: A series of delivery truck heists lead police to infiltrate Los Angeles' underground street-racing community.

Rating: Though resorting to meat-head machismo antics and lowest-common-denominator storytelling, a good-looking and charismatic cast, capable action, and a tight story that doesn't overstay its welcome makes this a fun ride.

The first dialogue of this movie is "Just packed up a real money load, and it's coming your way.  Look for "Rodgers" on the truck's side.  Don't forget my share of the deal."  I immediately thought that I was in trouble.  It's just the most direct, ham-fisted way to tell your idiot audience what's going on.  There is no hint of subtlety at all.  But I decided to go with it and allow the movie to know what it was.

I'm pretty stunned at how much I enjoyed it.

Street racing is a world of which I have next to no knowledge or interest, but I think it worked to the movie's credit.  I think it's inherently engaging to look at lives unlike your own, so showing people obsessed with a subculture of which I am not a part meant I was seeing something new.  And the cast is really diverse.  All kinds of different looking people, many of whom are very attractive and just fun to be around makes the exposition enjoyable.  I genuinely liked and wanted the best for the people in the film.

The action was decent and in an effort to cheat the speed effect, did some kind of weird film distortion to show acceleration.  It's not my preferred brand of racing action, but it's stylized and something I'd not seen.  They used a few other techniques as well, like shaky cam, as well as more traditional, tight-to-the-ground shots that weren't necessarily great, but were varied enough to keep from getting boring.

I liked the core story.  It takes a page from 1991's Point Break and feels like a more Limp Bikzit version of it -- chicks making out with each other, ass grabbing, rap-rock hyper-masculine douchery.  The vibe was very 2000s.  However, despite all that, the boiled-down plot points and misdirection were on-point.  I had some of the finer details spoiled for me through sheer osmosis from the cultural zeitgeist, since this film series has become such a blockbuster juggernaut, but I can only imagine that the twists were great at the time and I found the unfolding of those mysteries to be very fair and well set-up.

In addition to the plot, there is definitely a theme of family and honor among thieves that comes through.  It's not Shakespeare, but it attempted to have a larger point, and in large part succeeded.  

There are incredible lapses in logic, in terms of the action set-pieces.  The most notable of these is a 1/4 mile drag-race that is set-up throughout the film as 10 seconds long.  And it's a 3 minute racing-sequence.  But whatever -- I give other films passes for similar things, because it's about the meaning and emotion, and isn't asking you to make sense of it.  ...still good for a laugh though.

At only 1 hour and 45 minutes The Fast and The Furious doesn't hang around too long -- it moves and it gets the hell out of the way before you tire of it.  It can be enjoyed much like an MTV video -- hot chicks with loose morals, bros being bros, irresponsible and short-sighted money squandering, partying, disregard for authority, and music.  Fun times, though.

[Brian Fein]

A lot of people shit on this movie and the series in general for unrealistic plot points and over-acting.  Its one of my favorite movies, as you have heard me recite movie lines like second nature.  For that reason alone is why I'm surprised you liked it.

If you decide to continue with the series, which I sincerely hope you do, you'll see all the talking points you touched on, from the unrealistic stunts to the family-centric over-arch, become emphasized incrementally with each movie.  The 2nd and 3rd are almost stand-alone stories, while it circles back in the 4th and brings them all together and carries forward from there.  Early films tell the story of how Dom Toretto assembles his "crew" and the last 3 or 4 are stories of how that crew starts wrecking shit on an international scale.

I'd love to see your reviews of the next couple, if you decide to watch them.  But be warned - Tokyo Drift is kind of a turd.

[CF DolFan]

I'm not knocking anyone who does but I've never been able to get into this series. I get bored with exaggerated car chases to begin with so a whole movie of it is painful to watch.

[Fau Teixeira]

I'd love to see your reviews of the next couple, if you decide to watch them.  But be warned - Tokyo Drift is kind of a turd.

i was just gonna say Tokyo Drift was the best one!

[Tenshot13]

They are all fun to watch, if you're taking any of the movies too seriously then you just don't get it. 

[ArtieChokePhin]

I'd love to see your reviews of the next couple, if you decide to watch them.  But be warned - Tokyo Drift is kind of a turd.

i was just gonna say Tokyo Drift was the best one!

A lot of people designate Tokyo Drift as the worst because it's completely different from the rest of the storyline.   But when they make the 9th installment in this series, Tokyo Drift will make sense. 

That being said, I love this series and have all 8 movies on Blu Ray.

[Spider-Dan]

Ironically, Tokyo Drift is the only real "racing" movie in the series.  The rest are caper/heist movies.

TF&TF is a cultural staple for people like Brian and me.  It came out right at the peak of the import tuner era, when we were both involved with car clubs that had forum threads about installing cold air intakes, aftermarket body kits, and neon underbody glow.

[Phishfan]

I haven't seen a single movie in the series

[pondwater]

The first one was decent as a stand alone movie. Aside from that they just got progressively more stupid as they made them. Hell, there was one a few years ago I couldn't even finish watching it was so bad. There's good cheesy and bad cheesy. Definitely bad cheesy

[Brian Fein]

TF&TF is a cultural staple for people like Brian and me.  It came out right at the peak of the import tuner era, when we were both involved with car clubs that had forum threads about installing cold air intakes, aftermarket body kits, and neon underbody glow.

I almost forgot about this era of my life. lol

[masterfins]

I haven't seen a single movie in the series

I'm with you.  I tried watching one of these on TV, just couldn't get into it and changed channels after about 5 minutes.