The Fast and the Furious
Love cars? Hate art films? This one is for you. The Fast and the Furious is for the ’Torque’ and ’Gone in 60 seconds’ lovers.
The Story
Brain O’Connor (Paul Walker) is an undercover cop in search of a bunch of highway robbers. I told you this movie is all style n stunts so don’t think of those robbers as some drab gun-wielding fellows. They drive 5 black Honda Civics (with green neons under the chassis). Masters of precision driving, they rob money-carrying trucks on the move.
Walker is handed a Nitrous-Oxide fitted green vinyl-clad Hyundai Tiburon by the Police to infiltrate the street racing world. He impresses Vin Diesel with his performance at a winner-take-all drag race and then by saving him from the cops. So Mr. Arizona (as Diesel calls Paul) becomes a member of Diesel’s clan and starts working at his garage. While evading cops, Paul and Diesel meet a Chinese gang who blow the Tiburon up.
Now Paul makes himself a new Toyota Supra to compete in Race Wars - a legal racing competition. The pressure on Paul builds up as he repeatedly fails to find the real robbers. Finally, he has to blow his cover off when he gets to know that the clan he was working with is the robbers’ gang. The truckers are now armed so he chases the robbers and after lots of stunts and some drama, ultimately catches Diesel (now in a 900bhp Ford of 70s). They perform another stunt and Diesel crashes but Paul lets him go as the cops approach. Why? Because he owed him a 10 second car (he lost the drag race earlier and it was a winner-take-all remember?).
The Fast, the Furious and the Fantastic
If you want pure substance, watch something else. This movie is based on stunts and style. Hotties on the starting line, blurs at manic speeds, 10 millisecond gear changes, nitrous-trips - this is what the movie is all about. The Bond movies too have great car stunts but the catch is that this movie shows the actors performing them and how they do it. How the nitrous’ goes into the cylinder, how full-throttle changes are implemented and... how they get away with it.
The story is good but nothing to write home about. The stunts seem very real and hence exciting. There is an itsy-bitsy love affair, a small rivalry between Brian and Vince (another gang member) and there are lots of modified cars.
Paul Walker is good but tends to go overboard at times and his Mr Arizona accent doesn’t do him any good either. Vin Diesel steals the show. He seems magnetic and charming as the somewhat demonic, low self-control, cool dude. I have seen his XXX (not a porn movie, for the uninitiated) but his performance here is much better. Others are good but there is a lack of characterization.
The Verdict
All in all it is a good movie if you are willing to watch it as a low-substance, high-adrenalin film. The sound-track is mind blowing and the camera effects are top-notch. Do watch it if you haven’t and if you like fast cars.
Mast or Furious, do comment