'Fast & Furious' Owner's Manual: A Guide As The Best Worst Franchise Turns 20
The word "stupid" haunts discussions of The Fast & The Furious, which is altogether reasonable. Its submarine-versus-car battle, its wooden dialogue about family, its abandonment of truths from tech capabilities to gravity ... sure.
But to miss the series' resilience, its invention, its adaptability, and the way it has been stripped of its original identity is to miss the story of Hollywood in the 21st century. Love it or hate it, The Fast & The Furious might be the smartest, dumbest, best, worst franchise we have.
Chapter One: Critics Don't Hate Action Movies
It was the summer of 2001. One of the new releases on a late June weekend was The Fast & The Furious, a summer car-racing movie starring Paul Walker, who was then probably most familiar to audiences as a menacing rich jerkface in the rich-jerkface thriller The Skulls. It also featured Vin Diesel, who had recently been seen as a supporting player in the rich-jerkface thriller Boiler Room. "When the sun goes down, another world comes to life," said the trailer, which promised to reveal a world of car-racing and sex.
As briefly as possible: Brian (Walker) is an undercover L.A. cop who's infiltrated the gang of street racers and electronics thieves headed by Dominic Toretto (Diesel) and his girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez). But in a development very reminiscent of Point Break, Brian falls in with this group. By the end, his loyalty is with Dom, and he's in love with Dom's sister Mia (Jordana Brewster).
There's a myth of movies as got mixed reviews. Todd McCarthy of that it shared a title with a 1954 Roger Corman picture and called it "a gritty and gratifying cheap thrill." What's even more eye-catching is McCarthy's vision of its future:
