Fast and Furious--2009
Is it because I had to wait a month to see the fourth Fast and Furious movie that my expectations were too high to regard Fast and Furious (the simply named entry in the series from 2009, directed by Justin Lin) as a good movie?
Or is it not as exciting as the previous three? The first one used its dialogue scenes (the mellow touches in the film) well; the characters interacted with recognizable humanity. In this fourth piece of the saga, the elements don't add up to a good film, but parts of the movie don't suck.
I feel too harsh in writing that barb, but a CGI preponderant set piece in a long bending tunnel connecting Mexico with California goes on for too long, just as the downtime scenes in the film go on for too long. It's not a well-edited film. Fred Raskin and Christian Wagner did the editing. Why two editors? Is that what keeps the film from coming across with something like the strong rhythm of the first film, The Fast and the Furious (2001)? The fourth film in the series lapses from the previous three, a dip in the track formed thus far by eight big money-making films that resemble vacation and car advertisements with video game chase or race sequences. The acting, of course, is expendable in these films. Whatever acting comes forth as passable works fine.
Paul Walker (FBI Agent Brian O'Connor) smolders like a figure of molten gold. He ranks with Montgomery Clift, Paul Newman, and Alain Delon as one of the handsomest actors. He reunites with Mia, Dom Toretto's sister (Jordana Brewster, who reminds me of Ali MacGraw). He competes against Dom Toretto, whose chip on the shoulder grows to large lumpy proportions after his girlfriend, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez, fucking hot) is murdered by Fenix (Laz Alonso) for some reason. Apparently he didn't know this was Toretto's girl, plus he didn't even know who she was. Whether this point has anything to do with the plot, I'm not sure.
Fenix works for Campos (John Ortiz--good job as a duplicitous drug lord who plays golf, talks like a gangster, sits on a big green throne-like chair, stages night races on streets not cleared of the public). O'Connor infiltrates Campos's operation, as does Toretto, who seeks the killer of his lover and truck-jacking colleague, Letty.
Mexico and California, dry locations, the Dominican Republic at one point. At the beginnings of races, men showing off their shiny speed cars, women in tight clothes everywhere. Taunts, bets, magnetic looks exchanged between the still mistrusting Dom Toretto and his FBI agent former friend who fucked his kid sister who looks a bit like Ali MacGraw.
Into the story comes someone I wasn't expecting, even though I previously knew about her being in two or three movies in the series. Gisele (Gal Gadot, who played Wonder Woman in the recent film) works for Campos. She works, too, with Campos's heroin smuggling drivers (O'Connor and Toretto included). She gives Toretto her cell phone number. She wants to fuck Dom Toretto. She wants to fuck him even more after he saves her life.
She doesn't fuck him as far as I could discern. Dom Toretto remains faithful for the duration of the film to the departed Letty. He visits her gravesite. On the stone we find that Letty comes from Leticia.
Letty's death, seen in flashback that may be based on someone's subjective report, bummed this writer out. No Letty means no Michelle Rodriguez. She does appear in a few flashbacks. I can't say I missed her as much as Dom Toretto feels the loss, but her absence from the film slowed it down and made the weaker scenes all the more so, since Michelle Rodriguez could've been acting in them.
Is it a bad film? No. It just doesn't carry as much intensity as the previous three films. They wanted to delve into the characters, but now that we've seen Dom Toretto's dark side, his broods, it's time to let him burst forth; Dom Toretto, man of many moods, drinker of Corona, lover of speed.
Vic Neptune
Is it because I had to wait a month to see the fourth Fast and Furious movie that my expectations were too high to regard Fast and Furious (the simply named entry in the series from 2009, directed by Justin Lin) as a good movie?
Or is it not as exciting as the previous three? The first one used its dialogue scenes (the mellow touches in the film) well; the characters interacted with recognizable humanity. In this fourth piece of the saga, the elements don't add up to a good film, but parts of the movie don't suck.
I feel too harsh in writing that barb, but a CGI preponderant set piece in a long bending tunnel connecting Mexico with California goes on for too long, just as the downtime scenes in the film go on for too long. It's not a well-edited film. Fred Raskin and Christian Wagner did the editing. Why two editors? Is that what keeps the film from coming across with something like the strong rhythm of the first film, The Fast and the Furious (2001)? The fourth film in the series lapses from the previous three, a dip in the track formed thus far by eight big money-making films that resemble vacation and car advertisements with video game chase or race sequences. The acting, of course, is expendable in these films. Whatever acting comes forth as passable works fine.
Paul Walker (FBI Agent Brian O'Connor) smolders like a figure of molten gold. He ranks with Montgomery Clift, Paul Newman, and Alain Delon as one of the handsomest actors. He reunites with Mia, Dom Toretto's sister (Jordana Brewster, who reminds me of Ali MacGraw). He competes against Dom Toretto, whose chip on the shoulder grows to large lumpy proportions after his girlfriend, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez, fucking hot) is murdered by Fenix (Laz Alonso) for some reason. Apparently he didn't know this was Toretto's girl, plus he didn't even know who she was. Whether this point has anything to do with the plot, I'm not sure.
Fenix works for Campos (John Ortiz--good job as a duplicitous drug lord who plays golf, talks like a gangster, sits on a big green throne-like chair, stages night races on streets not cleared of the public). O'Connor infiltrates Campos's operation, as does Toretto, who seeks the killer of his lover and truck-jacking colleague, Letty.
Mexico and California, dry locations, the Dominican Republic at one point. At the beginnings of races, men showing off their shiny speed cars, women in tight clothes everywhere. Taunts, bets, magnetic looks exchanged between the still mistrusting Dom Toretto and his FBI agent former friend who fucked his kid sister who looks a bit like Ali MacGraw.
Into the story comes someone I wasn't expecting, even though I previously knew about her being in two or three movies in the series. Gisele (Gal Gadot, who played Wonder Woman in the recent film) works for Campos. She works, too, with Campos's heroin smuggling drivers (O'Connor and Toretto included). She gives Toretto her cell phone number. She wants to fuck Dom Toretto. She wants to fuck him even more after he saves her life.
She doesn't fuck him as far as I could discern. Dom Toretto remains faithful for the duration of the film to the departed Letty. He visits her gravesite. On the stone we find that Letty comes from Leticia.
Letty's death, seen in flashback that may be based on someone's subjective report, bummed this writer out. No Letty means no Michelle Rodriguez. She does appear in a few flashbacks. I can't say I missed her as much as Dom Toretto feels the loss, but her absence from the film slowed it down and made the weaker scenes all the more so, since Michelle Rodriguez could've been acting in them.
Is it a bad film? No. It just doesn't carry as much intensity as the previous three films. They wanted to delve into the characters, but now that we've seen Dom Toretto's dark side, his broods, it's time to let him burst forth; Dom Toretto, man of many moods, drinker of Corona, lover of speed.
Vic Neptune
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