Since Dom (Diesel) and Brian's (Walker) Rio heist toppled a kingpin's empire and left their crew with $100 million, our heroes have scattered across the globe. But their inability to return home and living forever on the lam have left their lives incomplete. Meanwhile, Hobbs (Johnson) has been tracking an organization of lethally skilled mercenary drivers across 12 countries, whose mastermind (Evans) is aided by a ruthless second-in-command revealed to be the love Dom thought was dead, Letty (Rodriguez). The only way to stop the criminal outfit is to outmatch them at street level, so Hobbs asks Dom to assemble his elite team in London. Payment? Full pardons for all of them so they can return home and make their families whole again.
Before you walk down to fire up your Harlequin coloured Nissan Skyline, chuck a hectic burnout, and pay to see the new Fast & Furious with your petrol powered posse, perhaps a little warning may be in order?
This instalment of the new F&F is possibly the best, and worst thing I have seen in quite a while.
From the above description, you've probably already worked out that the days of stealing DVD players from the back of trucks are long gone. Toretto's 'gang' are dispersed world wide, enjoying the simpler things in like (such as private Jets... and sushi), but when they're brought together to help out an old friend, the shenanigans come roaring back with them, and so too, the ridiculously large stunts. (Speaking of ridiculously large, how they found a lens to fit The Rock's Biceps in is beyond my peabrain!)
I won't bother talking about things like the acting, or script, or musical score, or anything that good movies are really known for.
All that stuff in F&F is much like a Daewoo Lanos. It does the job. (Though The Rock isn't half bad... not great... but not half bad. Same goes for Tyrese Gibson.)
But of course, you didn't go to see a Fast and Furious for any of that, you went to see it for the cars, the girls, the street racing...
Oh wait, there isn't actually much of that either.
There's one race... but it's not a quarter mile. Clearly Dom doesn't live his life a quarter mile at a time anymore.
In fact, cars don't actually make up much of this movie at all. Instead of being co stars, they've been downgraded to transport, which is really sad, I think. Thats what made this whole franchise in the beginning.
It's like telling James Bond he's now 005; it just doesn't feel right.
And when they do try to throw the cars into the mix, they just get it wrong. For instance, in the opening scene we see Brian racing Dom in an R35 GTR and Dodge Challenger through a twisty mountain road, neck and neck.
Yup, Neck and neck.
I know it's meant to be tense and what not, but all I could think the whole time was, "That r35 must have a slipping clutch or something because there's no way old mate in the Dodge could keep up." It's distracting. If you're going to make a film about petrol heads, for a group of petrol heads, maybe consult with some petrol heads.
/Rant.
What it lacks in street racing though, it makes up for in Brilliant fights, stunt work, car chases and explosions.
The fight scenes are well choreographed, particularly the fight between the Letty and Riley, as well as the end sequence with The Rock and Dom inside a fleeing cargo plane.
The car chases are inviting, and for the briefest of moments you forget where you are and feel like you're behind the wheel.
And the Stunts really are sublime. It feels expensive, which is great; it'll wow and stun you all the way through.
The most important thing to remember when going to see this though...
is to turn your brain to the off switch. Just do it.
If you think about it too much, it'll just annoy you. Accept that the laws a physics don't much apply to the Fast & Furious Universe, and that time is not directly linked with space (the last scenes involving a plane trying to take off goes for about twenty minutes; the runway must be at least 60km long).
If you can do this, i guarantee you'll have a blast, and come out wanting to watch all six, all over again.
Ollie
Ollie Yeah Buddy
840 posts · joined Oct 2009 ·
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http://forums.aussieveedubbers.com/viewtopic.php?tid=95238
- '70 1500 Beetle (The Clean One)
- '76 1300 Beetle (The In-between One)
- '69 1500 Beetle (The Mean One)
