Fast & Furious (4 Stars)

This is the film that kicked off the Fast & Furious franchise in 2001. So far there have been nine films in the series, alongside a spin-off film and an animated television series.

There's some confusion with the film titles, which I'll fix by heavy-handedly renaming the films. The actual title of this film is "The Fast and the Furious". Fair enough. But the fourth film in the series is called "Fast & Furious". The names of the other films, which I intend to watch slowly but surely, are also erratic, so I'll simply call this film "Fast & Furious" and number all the others 2 to 9, etc. That will at least put them in the right order in my alphabetical list of posts.

Now to the plot. A series of trucks have been stopped and robbed on the highway near Los Angeles. There's evidence that the culprits used specially modified racing cars. The police send an undercover cop, Brian O'Connor, to infiltrate the illegal racing car scene. He takes part in races on the streets of Los Angeles. Even though he doesn't win the races, he gains the respect of the reigning champion, Dominic Toretto. He also falls in love with Dominic's daughter, which is more of a problem than an advantage.

I admit that there are problems with the film. The character development is thin, to say the least. There are a couple of statements about Brian's past, but we don't know whether they're true or false information as an undercover cop. Dominic is the only well developed character, but we don't find out about him until late in the film.

These deficiencies are made up for by the action. As the title says, it's fast and furious.

Previously I've only watched the seventh film in the series. I recently bought a box set with the first eight films. It was so cheap that I couldn't resist. I'll watch all eight films eventually. I have a lot of other films that I want to watch first. It's not just my top films list, which is rapidly reaching completion. I have other films that I've scheduled for viewing from September onwards.

Success Rate:  + 3.5

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