The Fast and the Furious

                With the latest installment hitting theaters, I figured now would be a good time to look at where the franchise began. This is a tale of humble beginnings when you consider where the franchise is at now, and what the plot has become. Imagine trying to explain to the younger generation who started out with Fast Five what the original film was all about. The first question they would ask you is, “where is The Rock?”. We need to keep in mind that the first film came out in 2001. After two decades, we knew that the franchise would change, but did we ever expect it to be this drastic? To fully understand, let us take a look back to the origins of the franchise, and give an honest review of the first installment.

            The film starts off with a few cars pulling off a heist on a truck, which then leads to us getting introduced to LAPD officer Brian O’Conner, who has been tasked to go undercover and find out who is committing this string of heists. O’Conner suspects that local street racer Dominic Toretto and his crew are responsible, and so he begins to eat at their market to try to develop a relationship for which he can use to talk to Toretto. This leads to Brian entering a street race that night, putting his car up for grabs, in hopes of winning and gaining Toretto’s respect, as well as his trust. Brian loses the race, but as they are looking over his damaged car, police infiltrate the race, and Toretto is on the run until he is rescued by O’Conner. They then have a run-in with Dominic’s rival, Johnny Tran. Tran issues a warning to the two to stay out of his territory, and then blows up O’Conner’s car. Having rescued Dominic from the police, O’Conner earns his trust and thus becomes a part of the gang, and even going as far as dating Toretto’s sister, Mia. The rest of the film revolves around more heists, street racing, and Brian doing everything he can to not let his relationship with Mia, and his respect or Dom, cloud his judgement on the task at hand. He struggles to maintain his cover, especially since Dom’s best friend, Vince, does not trust him at all, due to his jealousy over Brian’s relationship with Mia. To think, these films used to be just about truck heists and street races, and the only cops that were involved were the LAPD. No crazy secret agencies, no insane hacking, no ridiculous stunts. This film was in a simpler time, and honestly, that was perfectly okay. This film featured a solid cast led by Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, and Jordana Brewster, and the played solid characters with legitimate motivations.

            While this film did not have the flash and brilliant cinematography that the films now have, it had its own charm. It was not as clean, it had a sense of ruggedness, and it was at a much smaller scale, but it worked for the time. At the time, this film was a big deal. It came out to number one at the box office, and it worked as an action film, much in the same way Point Break worked a decade prior. It is cheesy in many ways, but it works for what it is trying to be. The film never takes itself too seriously, and there are enough flashy visuals to look at to keep you entertained. While the screenplay itself could use some work, and the pacing tends to be a bit wonky, the film works as a popcorn action film that you can enjoy at least once. Official Rating: 2.5 Stars.