movie review
Fast & Furious
High-octane flick delivers thrills
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After watching the opening scene of “Fast & Furious,” my 14-year-old son and I both proclaimed it the Best.Opening.Scene.Ever!
The stunts are ridiculously awesome: The crew is stealing fuel from a tanker semi-truck hurling down the highway. They pull up behind the semi, turn their vehicle around so they’re driving backwards, unhook the trailer full of fuel and hook it to their own vehicle – all while moving down the highway at a fast clip.
But the best stunt comes a few moments later, when the flaming semi is bouncing towards them, and Dom (Vin Diesel) waits until just the right moment to blast forward, driving underneath the truck as it bounces in the air, narrowly missing being flattened.
And of course, he does it all with smooth confidence, never getting riled up over the impossible stunt. His girlfriend, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) is a little less passe over it and ends up screaming at him to do…something!
This fourth installment of the “Fast & Furious” franchise is all about the stunts; really, the plot is secondary. It brings together the four characters from the original movie – 2001’s “The Fast and the Furious,” which won a slew of awards for cinematography and other things.
Dom Toretto (Diesel) is a fugitive ex-con working south of the border who heads back to L.A. to investigate a crime. Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) is a federal agent, who gets involved with the same crime, but from a different angle. The two have a touchy history, but end up working together to bring down a shared enemy. Also working on the sidelines is Dom’s sister, Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster), who used to be involved with O’Conner. Letty, played by Michelle Rodriguez, is present, as well.
I won’t give away too much of the plot, but suffice to say it involves several bad guys and, as mentioned, some awesome stunts involving muscle cars, street racing, and a wild race through a Mexican tunnel across international lines.
It would be good to see the original movie before seeing this one, as it will give you a better feel for the characters and their history. But it’s not totally necessary, because this movie does a good job of getting you caught up.
If you like movies with lots of fast cars and cool stunts, then “Fast & Furious” is for you. The main characters aren’t hard to look at either, and Vin Diesel has this damaged-by-life persona that shines through in this movie. You sort of just want to hug him and make it all better.
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