Tuesday, May 28, 2013

What's Next On My List? The Fast And The Furious Franchise

This being my favorite series of all time, I am going to talk about all the movies, before we head into the next installment of the franchise. I am going to see it very soon and I am plenty excited!

Brian O'Conner is an undercover cop who befriends the Toretto family, in order to discover whether or not they are behind a crime. They actually are, and their team steals goods from trucks on the road. However, during the last heist, things go bad and Brian - after having fallen in love with Mia Toretto, helps them out.
After leaving Dominic Toretto run, he too runs away to avoid being prosecuted by his own team. I loved this movie - this in particular focused a lot more on the illegal racing world and I really liked that world. Brian could be happy with them. And the racing?  This was a great beginning to the franchise. Growing up I collected car models and I preferred them a lot more than dolls. I was actually the one who went with my dad when he wanted to buy a new car! Either way, the story had a great cast, good setup - for a time there I was sure that they had the wrong family and that kept me even more excited. Trying to figure out what was going on, and also sensing frustration from Brian who clearly had fallen in love with Mia - and his face once he realized that it was indeed Dominic who masterminded the heists... priceless! This is a great movie.

After running away from the police, Brian hides away in Miami. He is sought out by his old boss, who promises him and an old friend of his a pardon if they help out getting a criminal. He asks for the help of his old friend Roman Pierce and together they bring the criminal to justice.
I'll tell you, I loved this movie. It was actually the first one I saw at my friends house, it was only a couple of years later - from the DVD extras - that I've found out this was a sequel. The story is great, again the cars were off the hook and all of the actors delivered. There are several intense moments as well that leave your jaw dropped. I also think that it was a worthy follow-up. Brian stays true to his character and the addition of a lady cop, that being Eva Mendes who simply blew me away in this movie was a great choice. This I think was a worthy sequel, obviously the public doesn't share my opinion, based on the ratings, but I think it was just overlooked because there is no Vin Diesel in it.

We have a new hero, Sean, a young boy who after facing police arrest for the Nth time, is sent to Japan by his mom to live with his dad. Although a big fan of car racing, he finds a new way of racing he doesn't have any experience with. He gets help by an American boy and a guy who seems to know his way around town, Han. He hires Sean to do some work for him and in exchange he teaches him about drifting. The movie comes to an end with Sean defeating the current Drift King and being accepted by the community and receiving a challenge from an unknown man. We see that it is Dominic Toretto who claims to have known Han.
Wow, people really hated this movie! I mean, it was insane! And I didn't get why... I mean, I see that they wanted the old cast back and that they didn't really care much for Sean, but it was still a great movie. I am a huge fan of Japanese culture and for me it was a blast. Did I miss the old crew? Of course I did, but seeing Diesel at the end of the movie completely threw me off and it was an awesome surprise. Not to mention that this was the first movie of the series that I saw in the theatre and it was all in great fun! I think that people who have grown to love Han in the last two movies might want to re-watch and approach it differently - who knows, maybe you'll like it more now!

Fast And Furious
People went crazy for this movie. Putting Diesel at the end of the third made them realize that the public actually craved for more Dominic and Brian action. So in the first movie we are introduced once again to Brian, who now works for the FBI and is trying desperately to bring a drug lord to justice. His and Dominic's path meet again when it turns out that Dom's love Letty has been killed by the same drug lord. Dominic helps Brian - however the latter is incapable of arranging a pardon for Dominic and he sent to prison for life. The movie finishes with him and Mia heading to rescue him.
This movie made me PISSED OFF! First of all, yeah I was very happy this was coming out, but from the old crew there was a total number of two characters whom I liked very much (guess who dies in the fifth movie...), and when this movie first appeared on imdb the plot summary was "Dominic and Brian team up to take down Letty's murderer." WHAT?! No! Don't kill Letty! And when the summary changed, I thought, uh, thank God, they didn't take that direction after all! ... F*ck you. Still, it was great to get back my favorite characters and there was even place for romance :)

This story is special because it follows directly where the fourth ended. We see that Brian and Mia rescued Dominic and are now headed to Rio - where they seek the help of an old friend - Vincent from the first movie. (He was my love, and, well yeah...) He would, but upon arrival, they all see that the citizen are being crashed by a tyrant and they decide to stick around and help out - show him who is really boss. Hobbs who would do anything to get Dominic back behind bars. It works to their advantage, that the tyrant kills Hobbs men as well, not just Vincent, and in the end he lends them a hand in defeating him. They fled anyway, and the movie ends with agent Hobbs receiving a photo that proves that Letty is still very much alive.
Unfortunately they are followed by an USA agent by the name of
There was about 4 of us in the cinema when I saw the movie, and after the very last scene I almost started to scream. Like an idiot, I wanted to scream I was so happy! Let alone the fact, that the cop who brings the photo to Hobbs was Eva Mendes - I already reached euphoria at that point - but then the picture? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!! Awesome :D Either way, the movie changed a bit and instead of focusing on the racing, there was a 'perfect crime' in it. And I love those! My favorite movies like that are Inside Man, Ocean's Eleven and Twelve and so on. Cars, cast, story - they literally hit it off the park for me. The Rock was a great addition to the cast.

So, my next time at theatre will be to see the sixth installment. And what better way to enjoy my birthday than watching my two favorite guys rescue Letty? :)
Until the next item on my list!
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Dominic Toretto - Vin Diesel
Mia Toretto - Jordana Brewster
Brian O'Conner - Paul Walker
Vincent - Matt Schulze
Roman Pierce - Tyrese Gibson
Agent Hobbs - Dwayne Johnson
Monica Fuentes - Eva Mendes
Tej - Ludacris
Gisele Harabo - Gal Gadot
Sean - Lucas Black
Elena - Elsa Pataky
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

I couple of days back I started to think about how cool it would be if Transporter's Jason Statham joined the cast :D Well, you won't believe who appears on the cast list for Fast & Furious 7... I can't wait!

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