The Fast and the Furious (2001) Spoiler-Filled Review/Rant: Should Be Called Slow and Tame Snore-fest...

 

The "Fast & Furious" franchise is one of the most popular franchises that is still going strong today, with the last two films in the main series earning over a billion in the box office. This is mainly due to the over-the-top action and various stars that show up in the films along with a sense of awareness to the identity of the franchise. Can you think of a franchise that went from some racing melodrama that evolved into a spy-action blockbuster with explosions and A-list actors? Well, that should mean that the first film must be considered a classic in its own right, correct? After all, it did inspire a highly successful franchise, much like "Iron Man" or "Mission: Impossible"? Well... let's just say that if it were up to me, this franchise would've been dead in the water going by the first film alone. 

Positives:

• Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto. While Dominic isn't the deepest of characters, which is not something that can be found in this franchise, this is clearly the role that Diesel is both born to play and will be famous for. A notorious street race and leader of his crew, Dominic is both charming in his brute nature while being dangerous both in and outside of a car. I also like that he's portrayed as a morally-grey character who has his demons, but is only doing illegal business to provide for himself and the people he loves. Outside of Diesel, I will give credit that the cast are good actors, but their characters are just another story in general.
• The stunts provided in the few action sequences in the film. Considering how over-the-top and CGI-heavy the later films get, it's refreshing to see practicality in the first film. Sure, the action isn't as entertaining and is pretty small-scale in comparison, but franchises do have to start somewhere.
• The tropes that originated from this film. From the endorsement of "Corona" beers, the street races with shots of sexy girls, the meat-headed attitude of the street racing community, and Dominic stating that he cares for his "family" is all started here. Regardless of your take on this film, this is the building block that would eventually carry this franchise to unexpected heights. With that said, it's just pathetic that this film could have been much better as an actual film.

Negatives:

• Let's start with the story. Brian O'Connor is an undercover LAPD officer sent to locate and infiltrate Dominic Toretto's crew due to the FBI's suspecting that they are the one responsible for stealing DVD's and other electronics from cargo trucks. As Brian spends more time with the crew though, he starts denying that they are the one stealing the cargo and points to a rival of Dominic, Johnny Tran. On top of that, he starts to rethink his allegiance as he and Dominic start to "bond" along with Brian and Dominic's sister, Mia Toretto, start falling in love. The problem with the story starts when you clearly realized that this is in fact a rip-off of "Point Break". Even if one takes away that resemblance, the story itself is just so cliched and boring that it's almost painful to watch because the viewer is always ahead of the characters which doesn't help due to the pacing feeling slow at times. The worst offending aspect of the story is that it recycles the plot-line of a blooming romance between the lead and the rival faction in order to cloud his judgement. We have seen this in "Avatar", "Princess Mononoke", "Ferngully", and countless other movies. It doesn't feel that Brian abandons his job because of moral duty, but rather because he's finally got a piece of ass in his life. It's a ridiculous story-thread and although the film attempts to claim that Brian and Dominic's friendship is what truly tested his position as the undercover cop is completely laughable. The characters do interact, but it's not like they really bonded that much or Dom's viewpoint has completely evolved Brian, it just feels that Brian is caring for Dom just so he can have permission to bang his sister. On top of that, the whole subplot of Tran being the suspect behind the heists is completely pointless and just makes Brian feel so much of an unlikeable idiot.
• Paul Walker as Brian O'Connor. This is a very unpopular opinion, but I hate Brian O'Connor in all of the times he shows up in the franchise. It's sad that Walker died from a car accident and he's generally a good actor that is mainly famous from this franchise, but man, does his character suck in practically every appearance. The biggest problem with Brian in this first installment is just how terrible of a character he is. For one, you got the terrible romance that I already mentioned. Second, he's a horrible cop for screwing up the operation for the FBI. Thirdly, Walker just has no charisma in this film that makes you want to root for him. I actually wished that Eminem took the job of playing the character as intended, since at the very least, he would have been much more charismatic to work off on Diesel's performance. When I see Walker as Brian in this film, I just see some pretty-faced white boy that's pretending to be far more pathetic than he really is and only evolves to be an unlikeable douchebag that doesn't make up his own mind with shallow logic.
• The rest of the cast and characters. Although some of these characters do return and become much more fleshed out and enjoyable, their first appearance leaves a lot to be desired. First, there's Michelle Rodriguez as Letty, Dom's tough-as-nails girlfriend. While Letty becomes far more dynamic in the later films, she doesn't really do anything at all in the first film aside from just being a crew member that Dom just so happens to be dating. Next, there's Jordana Brewster as Mia, Dom's sister who is in love with Brian. I also think that she's a pretty terrible character in the overall franchise as she's just made to be the cute girl that serves as Brian's love interest. Mia never gets to be useful at all in the franchise, other than to tell Brian where her brother is. She never partakes in the action, racing, hacking or anything, and is the most useless character in the crew. Speaking of the crew, there are some faces who fans will never see again with one exception. There's Vince, Dom's friend who picks fights with Brian due to his crush on Mia, Jesse, the brains of the crew who's diagnosed with ADD and gets killed before he left an impact on the franchise, and there's Leon, the most forgettable character of the crew because he literally disappears from the franchise and never shows up again after Jesse's death. Vince is the only member of the original crew to reappear in the franchise and not for that long, mind you. The last character to mention would be Johnny Tran, the Vietnamese leader of a rival gang that Dom is competing against and Brian is trying to pin the former's crimes on. Rick Yune tries his best, but the character is just one-note, which is the best way to describe the majority of the characters in the movie. Aside from Dom, everyone else has either not matured yet to being fleshed-out, generic as all hell, or just Brian O'Connor.
• The directing by Rob Cohen. Considering his filmography, I don't think he has ever made a good movie aside from the Bruce Lee biopic. This film looks like it was made by a first-time director accustomed to music videos or high school plays. The staging of the actors is just all over the place. Everyone looks like if they are about to bust a rhyme or get into a musical number, and considering the cheesiness of the films, I wouldn't be that surprised. Considering the more grounded, if stupid, storyline, you'd think that the first film would be the most realistic, but it's kind of sad when you consider the later spy-action sequels feel more natural than the bare-bones original.
• The cinematography by Ericson Core. I don't want to bash Core too much, since he made the excellent "Togo", but his work on the first "Fast & Furious" film is not the best demonstration of his work. This is mainly due to Cohen's directing and making the film look unnatural, cheap, and lazy. The action scenes at the very last do have some visual style going on with the shaky camera and the rawness of the stunts and stakes.
• The music by BT. Who's BT? He's a DJ who has worked with many stars during his career and is generally more noteworthy in the music industry due to his limited experience on film scores. The music presented here is very much on the hip-hop/electronic, but it just blurs into the lack of identity the film has. BT's work just suits Cohen's vision of having the film appear like some early 2000's music video and it makes whatever music he has actually made just forgettable. As for the licensed songs, there are plenty of them for sure, but man are they forgettable. It's odd, considering the later films will have some iconic songs attached, but the first film has like nothing to take note.
• The drag-racing sequence. Oh god, the drag-racing sequence at night. There are a few racing/car chase sequences presented in the film and they tend to be pretty underwhelming, especially compared to later sequels. The problem is that Cohen's lack of style or ambition really makes the racing kind of bland and the use of tons of close-ups of the driver tends to let the viewer glance over any racing or "stunts" during these scenes. The truck heists tend to be the only scenes where the stunts and showcasing of the cars and entertainment work. But then, there's the street race at night where Dom and Brian race for the first time. You'd think with the whole framework of the franchise that the first racing sequence would be one of the best highlights, right? Wrong! You will bear witness to terrible green-screen and flashy editing that makes you feel that you're in a crappy Universal Studios ride. It's really embarrassing to have one of your racing sequences in a franchise all about racing and cars to not even have anyone actually drive in this sequences. I understand if it's a chase or action sequence like in the newer films, but this is literally a street race at night, something that other directors manage to accomplish in the sequels. This scene alone practically speaks of the film's overall quality.

"The Fast and the Furious" has got to be one of the weakest first films in any franchise. Although Diesel as Dom is great, the stunts during the truck heists are pretty good, and the film does indeed laid the foundation for the tropes of the series and as a building block of what's to come, it can't be denied how bad this film gets. From the story being a template of "Point Break", Brian O'Connor being a terrible protagonist, the cliched romance between Brian and Mia being really unrelatable, the rest of the characters being either underdeveloped, shallow, or generic, the music by BT being one of the most forgettable soundtracks in the franchise, a terrible drag-racing sequence that just screams lazy and poorly-aged, and Cohen's directing makes the film look like a outdated music video from the era with bad staging and undermining Core's cinematography. It's surprising that this film managed to spawn a billion-dollar franchise, because going by the quality alone, a sequel shouldn't have been made. With that said, I can't even say that this is the worst film in the franchise. It's just a first installment that proves to be extremely underwhelming compared to the franchise. The only reason why anyone should watch this is mainly just for the cheese factor and the staples of the franchise being introduced without knowing how far it will depart in the decades to come.

Verdict: 3/10. Just a bad movie all-around that happens to be significant for the franchise it spawns. It's not worth watching, unless you like cliched, hammy stories and characters that don't fit in with the later half of the franchise.