Our first OFFICIAL review (if you remember, my first rant was about Evil Dead 2 waaaay back in march) is about a movie that not only kicked, but it kicked OLD SCHOOL! I'll bet you were expecting some sort of movie-bashing rampage, right? Well shaddap, this movie rocked. That's right, we're talking about The Fast and the Furious!!!!
This movie is by no means a think piece. I'd venture to say it was a man's movie, but that wouldn't be awfully PC of me, so I won't. (but I will). This is basically the turbocharged bastard son of any car crash movie ever made, and then some.
Let me start with the story: It's predictible, it's been done, it has the requisite love story/ies, but it helps move the story along between explosions. I won't give a plot summary or even a hint at it because there are some (predictible) twists that happen early on. But the story was the last thing on my mind, because the action moved on at an insane clip.
The special effects were... well... pretty basic. I mean, besides a couple of pure eye-candy scenes showing what's going on in the motor as the characters tear-ass along the streets at upwards of 180mph; there were also some modifications to the driving scenes - I doubt that they actually had two cars tearing past the screen like fucking harrier jets. The rest of it was sheer stunt-driving skill. It takes a special kind of person to drive UNDER a racing semi-truck, or bounce off the hood of a truck to corkscrew through the air. Wow, it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. And for us guys, the women were PHENOMENAL! The leading lady was just BREATHTAKING, and the others were... hell, they were almost as nice as the cars! So there was basically plenty to look at, between explosions, cars and women (and for the ladies, I suppose the guys weren't bad either).
Finally, the soundtrack kicked fucking ASS! I mean, in terms of music, there were a few tracks that were less than impressive, but a few others were just so visceral and driving that words couldn't describe it accurately. The car sounds themselves were absolutely deafening. The combination of the driving music and the roaring engines heightened the adrenaline rush to a fever pitch.
My advice is to leave your brain at the door when you see this movie. This is a movie for raw emotion and sheer adrenaline, not for analyzing the plot to death.
Mark Edwards is off to soup up his Chrystler Neon.
