The Fast and Furious
- Relatively unknown cast then in 2001, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Paul Walker and Vin Diesel.
- Eye candy for everyone, boys and girls alike.
- Strong female character in Michelle Rodriguez... Jordana Brewster's character, meh.
- Paul Walker's character, kinda loser-ish or is it just Paul Walker?
- Completely gratuitous, Vin Diesel taking his shirt off... no Paul Walker body sighting.
- First mainstream movie to make a big deal out of Asian import cars, for Asians, it's a yawn.
- Box office: surprise summer hit in 2001.
- My favourite car: Jesse's white Volkswagen Jetta GLX.
- Overall: Fast cars but pretty weak story line and whatever kinda acting.
2 Fast 2 Furious
- On the rise stars, Eva Mendes (went on to many great films, actual actress not eye candy), Devon Aoki (kick ass Japanese/German model, went on to Sin City among other things, rarely talks in any movies though), Ludacris (who know he could actually act, went on to Crash), Tyrese Gibson (great singer, great actor... Baby Boy, Annapolis..nothing big, but still can act)... and Paul Walker (well, Paul Walker is just... Paul Walker).
- Spotted unknowns, Michael Ealy and Amaury Nolasco (from Prison Break).
- Again, mostly import cars, a few American muscle cars here and there.
- My Favourite Car: a tie between Tyrese' Metallic Purple Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder and Devon Aoki's pink Honda S2000.
- Completely gratuitous, Tyrese taking his shirt off...
- Eye candy, for everyone.. boys and girls.
- Box office: definite hit.
- Overall: As an audience, I just went with it. The actual story was a bit better than the first.. and Tyrese as the muscle eye candy, was more fun to watch. I just didn't like all the stupid tag lines the character would say... like 'oh smack that bitch'... like wtf? who says that?
The Fast & Furious, Tokyo Drift
- Mostly unknown cast again, comprised of Korean Americans posing as Japanese Americans. I want to say 'not cool', but then again, a lot of generally Caucasian actors pose as everything from German to British to South American. That's what acting's about right? You have to play everyone across the board... or everyone you can manage to convincingly look like. Cast: Sung Kang --- love him (from Torque), Brian Tee (hot muscle eye candy), Nathalie Kelley (haven't seen her before or after), Leonardo Nam (funny guy, recently played a gay friend to Drew Barrymore in He's Just Not That Into You) and Lucas Black (don't really know him, before or after). So as you can see... the Asians dominate the scene here... and so do their cars, cause they're in Tokyo. Oh yeah.. I forgot about Bow Wow. Then again, who cares.
- A cameo from Vin Diesel himself, to bless the movie so to speak.
- Box office: lower intake than its predecessors, but still a relatively modest outcome.
- My favourite car: The Blue Mazda RX8.
- Overall: The storyline is easily forgettable, but it has a new take on driving techniques by switching up the regular straightline speed racing to some curve drifting from curved parking lot ramps to the edge of the cliff.
Fast and Furious
- All original cast. Fun Fun... original eye candy in tact. 10 years later, Vin Diesel's still got it. I can't believe he's 41. Some new bad guys for you though: Gal Gadot (too thin (the natural kind), but very beautiful), Laz Alonso (total bada$$ with his mohawk, who left BET for an acting career - rightfully so, he's pretty good) and John Ortiz (he's been in too many things to list, but if you see him, you'll know him). You can see the growth in most of the actors, except for Paul Walker... still a buster, sorry.
- A cameo by Sung Kang, from Tokyo Drift sets up the timeline for us... This story is supposed to be simultaneous to Tokyo Drift, as Sung Kang's character tells Vin Diesel, "I hear..something something about Tokyo", shoot me for not remembering huh?
- Disappointingly VERY male oriented and dominated. By this I mean... In all the other ones, it was still in a man's world, but there was always a woman who was an equal. Nope, not this one. They called all the shots in this film. It's all in their world, about their feelings and women are secondary to them or objects in crotch shorts. WTF???
- Eye candy... in exception for Vin Diesel, whose arms are still like guns but no body sighting, it's mostly crotch panty, tight outfit wearing women for men to watch.
- Cars. Mostly American muscle cars... and they make sure to comment about it, "American beats import every time", I guess we're slipping Americanism propaganda in a car movie now? This is the new low.
- Use of the more 'modern' GPS... and showcasing how annoying that GPS voice truly is. Can you hear it? Rerouting. Rerouting.
- Features the best races out of the 4 films. Seriously, I was on the edge of my seat for most of the races.
- Justin Lin, who also directed Tokyo Drift, is the director on this one. I say, it's the script then... not the director who wasn't so great in Tokyo Drift :)
- Box office: I would say, surprise hit in most people's eyes, the 70Mill opening weekend intake gave a big huh? to most people. Like really after almost 10 years? We're still interested? Well yeah... The interest in violence and sex will never die and watching fast car rides is relatively stimulating for most.
- My fave car... the bad girl Gisele Harabo's Porche Cayman. HOT!
- Overall: The women vs men thing definitely annoyed me, but I would say a pretty good comeback story after 8 years, and in between attempts to keep the F&F story running. The danger was more prominent than the past, and I felt way more invested in Vin Diesel's character. I also liked the borrowing of a CSI technique to retell the past.
In conclusion, here is my order of liking in the F&F watching experience.
Fast & Furious (2009)
2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
The Fast & Furious (2001)
The Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
0 comments:
Post a Comment