The Fast and the Furious (2001)
Directed by Rob Cohen
Dominic Toretto is a Los Angeles street racer suspected of masterminding a series of big-rig hijackings. When undercover cop Brian O'Conner infiltrates Toretto's iconoclastic crew, he falls for Toretto's sister and must choose a side: the gang or the LAPD.
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15 films that influenced The Fast and the Furious
What critics say influenced The Fast and the Furious
An updating (or rip-off) of sorts of "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955), this movie finds troubled teen Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) shipped off to live with his estranged father in Tokyo when his mother grows tired of dealing with his constant drag-racing antics.
"The Fast and the Furious" is "Rebel Without a Cause" without a cause.
In a nutshell, this is everything Gone in 60 Seconds should have been: loud, mindless, entertaining rubbish.
It's a refreshing change from such no-plot, all-action movies as "Gone in 60 Seconds."
The Fast and the Furious puts the lie to wannabe also-rans like Driven and Gone in 60 Seconds -- it's got the goods for real, and it delivers them wrapped in a shroud of speed and wild-eyed, hi-test fun.
Over the past year, we've had a couple of auto-based, adrenalin rush pics with "Gone in 60 Seconds" and "Driven."
This is no gentle love story of a man and his cars, you know, like Nic Cage in Gone In 60 Seconds, this is a deflowering visit to the automotive brothel.
After the duds "Gone in 60 Seconds" and "Driven", it's actually refreshing to see a film that understand that "fast car movies" should feature...well, fast cars.
There are moments in the film, primarily in its first third, where the combination of music and speeding cars blend into an abstraction that places the movie squarely in the company of something like Koyaanisqatsi , rather than The Fast and the Furious .
Walker attempts a McQueen's "Bullitt" or "Le Mans" but is woefully low on charisma.
Walker attempts a McQueen's "Bullitt" or "Le Mans" but is woefully low on charisma.
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I think that's what has happened to the gentle, melancholy cruisers of American Graffiti: the vengeance of Vietnam and the "Greed is Good" eighties settled into the aggressive materialism of the nineties.
I remember those old low-budget car movies that used to play at drive-ins when I was a kid: Eat My Dust and Grand Theft Auto are two that come to mind.
This is also where the film gets very derivative of such action flicks as "Speed" and "Point Break" - is it significant that Keanu Reeves starred in both of those films?
What's the story?: Essentially a remake of 1991's Point Break, a cop named Brian Spindler (Paul Walker) goes undercover to find out who's responsible for recent truck hijackings, where loads of expensive electronics equipment are being ripped-off by one or more rival gangs of street racers.
Nearly a decade before “ The Fast and the Furious ” came racing into theaters, “Point Break” had already established itself as the action flick of choice for most adrenaline junkies around the world.
It's Point Break all over again.
Okay, screenwriters Gary Scott Thompson, Erik Bergquist and David Ayer (do you really need three heads to rip off "Point Break"?) must have been sitting in the back when the originality fairy flew by, but if their script is little more than succession of B-movie stereotypes and macho bullshit, it's damn good at it!
In other words Rob Cohen’s abysmal The Fast And The Furious is Point Break with hotted up cars in replace of surf boards.
Rick Yune ("Snow Falling on Cedars") shows up as nothing more than the stereotypical Asian villain and rap star turned actor Ja Rule ("Turn it Up") isn't in the picture long enough to do more than remind viewers of his songs that appear on the soundtrack.
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This is also where the film gets very derivative of such action flicks as "Speed" and "Point Break" - is it significant that Keanu Reeves starred in both of those films?
Production Designer Waldemar Kalinowski ("Leaving Las Vegas," "Internal Affairs," "Powder") gives the film a vivid look, almost caressing racers such as the purple 240SX, the yellow Skyline and the red RX7 as they flash past against the softer colors of residential neighborhoods or in contrast with the darkness of the urban night or the light of the desert day.