The Fast And The Furious Retrospective - Fast & Furious (2009)

Written in December 2013

Plot Summary Taken From Wikipedia

Dominic and his new crew (Letty, Han, Leo, Santos and Cara) are hijacking fuel tankers in the Dominican Republic. Dominic begins to suspect the trail is too hot and leaves Letty behind in order to protect her from harm. Several weeks later, in Panama City, Dominic gets a call from Mia, who tells him that Letty has been murdered by Fenix Calderon (Laz Alonzo), after getting into a near fatal car accident. Dominic heads back to Los Angeles to examine Letty’s crash and finds traces of nitro-methane. He then goes to the only car mechanic that uses nitro-methane and coerces him into giving him the name David Park (Ron Yuan), the man who ordered the fuel.

Meanwhile, F.B.I. agent Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) is trying to track down a drug dealer named Arturo Braga (John Ortiz). His search leads him to David Park. Dominic arrives at Park’s apartment first and hangs him out of the window by his ankles before letting go. Brian, who was also on his way to Park’s place, saves Park who now becomes the FBI’s new informant. Park gets Brian into a street race through Los Angeles. Brian selects a modified Nissan Skyline GT-T ER34 from the Impound Lot. Dominic also shows up to race in his modified 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle. Gisele Yashar (Gal Gadot), the liaison for Braga, reveals that the winner will become the last driver on a team that traffics heroin between the United States-Mexico border. Dominic wins by bumping Brian’s car, making him lose control. Brian uses his power as an FBI agent to arrest another driver, Dwight Mueller (Greg Cipes), and takes his place on the team.

The following day, the team meets one of the Braga’s men. They drive across the border using underground tunnels to avoid detection. Brian had prior knowledge that, after the heroin was delivered, Braga ordered the drivers to be killed. However it was revealed to Dominic from Fenix that he killed Letty and after a tense stand-off, Dominic detonates his car with nitrous to distract Braga’s men and Brian hijacks a Hummer with US$ 60 million worth of heroin. Both Dominic and Brian drive back to Los Angeles and hide the heroin in a police impound lot where Brian picks up a modified Subaru Impreza WRX STI. Later on, Dominic finds out Brian was the last person to contact Letty, which results in him being attacked by Dominic until he learns Letty was working undercover for Brian, tracking down Braga in exchange for clearing Dominic’s name. Brian tells his superiors that in exchange for Dominic’s pardon, he will lure Braga into a trap, forcing him to personally show up to exchange money for the heroin. At the drop site, however, Ramon Campos (Robert Miano), the man who claims to be “Braga”, is revealed as a decoy, and “Campos”, the real Braga, escapes and flees to Mexico.

Brian and Dominic travel to Mexico on their own to catch Braga. They find him at a church and apprehend him. As Braga’s henchmen come down to rescue their leader, Brian and Dominic drive through the underground tunnels back to the United States. When some of Braga’s men are killed, Brian crashes his car and is injured after being T-boned by Fenix at the end of the tunnel. Before Fenix can kill Brian, Dominic, who survived the explosion and exchanged his 1970 Dodge Charger with a 1973 Chevrolet Camaro, drives into and kills Fenix. As police and helicopters start streaming to the crash site on the USA side, Brian tells Dominic to leave, but Dominic refuses, saying he’s tired of running. Despite Brian’s request for clemency, the judge sentences Dominic to25 years to life. Dominic boards a prison bus that will take him to Lompoc penitentiary and as the bus drives down the road, Brian and Mia, along with Leo and Santos (who assisted in the Dominican Republic heists), arrive in their cars to intercept it.

It’s like somebody took the best parts of the last three movies, and put all together in this movie. Who is that guy again?

Oh this guy’s cool, what else has he done.

Wikipedia: The last movie you watched, and the next two movies in this series.

Nice! What’s his next project?

Huffington Post: He’s directing Bourne 5, with Jeremy Renner reprising his role as Aaron Cross from Bourne Legacy.

Eh, I wish Matt would come back, but I love Jeremy so I’ll give it a look. But now to the actual review! Did you people need the info I just presented you with? Not especially, but I love Bourne and this guy’s awesome so shut up!

PROS:

• The action is equally as awesome as, if not more awesome than, Tokyo Drift!
• The set up for the next movie and the reference to the last movie are enjoyable.
• Vin and Paul are just as great together as they were back in The Fast and The Furious.
• The opening sequence is some of most entertaining action in this film!
• We finally get to see Michelle Rodriguez do what she does best, be freaking awesome!
• At the end of the movie we get to see Mia behind the wheel of a car looking pretty darn boss in that driver’s seat and ready to kick butt, I like that!
• Han is in this movie. And Han’s awesome!

CONS:

• The villain is rather uninteresting when it’s revealed he IS the villain, I liked this guy more when I thought he was just the bad guy’s number two.
• This isn’t an issue with the film itself, but at the end of the final action sequence, we saw Paul Walker looking pretty bloody and bruised, and there’s a distinct feeling he may not make it through. On the one hand, this is a great strong point that film has made me care for this character, but on the other hand, it’s very unnerving to see an actor who recently passed away in such a violent way in this form. But the movie does not lose any actual points for this scene, it just made very uncomfortable.
• Gal Gadot’s character makes her debut in this film, and while I did like her as a one of character, I was left wanting more from her knowing she has been recently cast as Wonder Woman. This again a not a flaw within the film, I just felt kind of let down.

Unlike the last movie, I don’t need to give two overall ratings to this film, it kicks ass and is a pedal to the metal joy ride, so as another action flick and a Fast & Furious movie, I’m giving this an 9 out of 10!