Belfast Meet, Details at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ belfastmeet/ - come along, you know you wan...
Belfast Meet, Details at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ belfastmeet/ - come along, you know you want to.
Member since:22.01.2001
Reviews:172
Members who trust:145
Once again the Vamp’s writing about one of his finds in this Tuesday’s ‘buy 3 DVD’s for £25’ star-find - this time being the speed-freak thriller - ‘The Fast and The Furious’, a movie that I’ve wanted to buy for a long time but all the time I’ve begrudged paying full price for it for a while as the words ‘mixed reviews’ comes to mind. But now, its been added to the looooooooong line of discs that have found their way into my grubby little mits and although it isn’t the greatest of movies - its a great no-brainer, and we all know about my love for no-brainers.
Quick idea of the storyline for you all then - Its LA - there’s an underground street-racing racket going on, the cops want to get to the bottom of this - but more importantly they want to get to the bottom of a gang hijacking Trucks at high speed and half-inching their load - now because they feel that the street-racing and the hijacking are linked they send in Brian O Conner (played by Paul Walker
of many teen movies fame) undercover as a wannabe street-racer.
Before long we’re introduced to Dom Toretto (Played by Vin Diesel of many laydeez dreams fame) who’s one of the biggest names on the street-racing scene and also the police’s biggest suspects for the hijacking. You can see the links already can’t you?
Anyway after Brian helps Dom evade the fuzz after they blew one of the ever so popular Street Races, you all knew that a union in crime was going to form between them (but of course that union was fake cos Brian’s reporting back to the good ole bacon boys), and just to make it better Brian’s decided that dating Dom’s sister (Mia played by Jordana Brewster) would be a good idea and you’ve got a plot that’s perfect for wasting a few expensive cars with.
* The Acting *
It’s good - it isn’t the best, but it’s an action movie so we don’t really expect it now do we?, Mr.Diesel does a good job of making himself look like the gentle but occasionally nasty giant Dom, and sure he’s mean and menacing - however there are no performances that make me want to scream ‘Oh My god get that man an Oscar’ and the same can be said of the rest of the cast. Michelle Rodriguez (who plays Dom’s bit of fluff aka Letty) does the usual job of looking extremely sultry and a little bit too much of Dom’s personal door-mat.
As for the rest of the cast - well the only note-worthy performance was from Paul Walker who was playing Brian - and it wasn’t a good note I’d put against his name - he just doesn’t inspire me to think ‘oooooh he’s menacing’ more like ‘ooooooh hes in way over his head here’- he just always seems to be ‘there’ never once actually making a decent enough impact on the screen to make me feel like saying that he did ok.
But on an overall there was nothing to really cry about from all of the cast - it was an adequate performance, probably not the best they could give but enough to not make the movie suck.
* Scenery and Soundtrack *
Expect, Long Roads, Long Guitar Riffs and Long Legs - it’s full of young women, standing around watching illegal racing whilst they have a backing music of Rap, Hip-Hop and a good ole Healthy dose of rock injected.
Now usually I would shrug my shoulders and say ‘meh’ at this kind of scene - but this kind of movie - well it’s just needed isn’t it? - it gets the adrenaline running through the viewers veins, gets you into the movie and does make for a good no-brainer, the locations were obviously needed for the loooooooong driving scenes.
Which leads me to the next part.........
* Stunt’s and Top Scene’s *
Well yes - the driving is pretty impressive, and the end chase scene (not a spoiler - all movies of this genre have a chase scene) does rock muchly - you get the feeling that the whole idea of the movie was to get the crowd whooping and cheering at these scenes and these scenes do get you going quite a bit - but it’s been done before, and it was done better in Gone In Sixty Seconds, again its not bad - just not that great either.
* Over-all *
It’s good - it’s perfect for a couple of hours to veg out to - but don’t watch it expecting to see a world-beating performance, watch it with a couple of mates, a few beers and a bag of chips n dip - only then will you honestly, truly enjoy it - don’t say you weren’t warned.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Action/Adventure - Director: Gore Verbinski - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring:Bill Nighy, Keira Knightley, Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Chow Yun-Fat
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
Nowt wrong with no-brainers. I was brought up on them....
Soho_Black 06.12.2002 22:34
I'll just go and watch "Gone in 60 Seconds" again then, I guess!
roxygirl 01.12.2002 23:03
My guy wants the DVD of this because he's a car addict, so I'm getting it for him this Christmas. It's an okay film, if you're into fast cars and drag racing like he is. Very well-written op. -Sarah :)
A guilty pleasure with excess horsepower,The Fast and the Furiousefficiently combines ... more
time-honoured male fantasies (hot cars, hot women, hot action) into a vacuous plot of crystalline purity. It's trash, but it'sfuntrash, in which a hotshot Los Angeles...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
A guilty pleasure with excess horsepower,The Fast and the Furiousefficiently combines ... more
time-honoured male fantasies (hot cars, hot women, hot action) into a vacuous plot of crystalline purity. It's trash, but it'sfuntrash, in which a hotshot Los Angeles...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Advantages: Back to the cruising scene with great cars, great sound systems and great girls. Action packed Disadvantages: It's not as good as Fast and Furious, poor acting, unrealistic story
![The Fast And The Furious [HD DVD] [2001]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78158583.jpg "The Fast And The Furious [HD DVD] [2001]")
![The Fast and the Furious [DVD] [1954] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/75101444.jpg "The Fast and the Furious [DVD] [1954] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]")
![The Fast and the Furious [DVD] [1954] [US Import] [NTSC]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/81497500.jpg "The Fast and the Furious [DVD] [1954] [US Import] [NTSC]")
Nov 20th, 2002
very helpful by (97%):
helpful by (3%):
![The Fast and the Furious [DVD] [2001]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/81124459.jpg)
