Now we finally get to the one that resembles what the series
looks like today. The plot is more
complicated than any we’ve had before and includes both Dom and Brian
penetrating the drug smuggling world to avenge Letty’s death (spoiler). Brian is now a special agent with the FBI
(remember his record got expunged at the end of 2 Fast) and Dom bums around the Caribbean and South America pulling
off one last job and then lying low. Dom
comes back to the city of angels to kill Letty’s murderer and tussles with
Brian who also wants to take down the drug lord scumbag.
Whereas the first film was sort of a throwback action cop
movie the fourth fits right in with its peers.
The bigger international story, globetrotting, vengeance, convoluted
heists and extreme CGI action sequences are all in line with the Mission: Impossibles, Bournes and comic
book movies that are still immensely popular.
I completely understand why the audience took to this installment and
why the series has continued to go in this direction.
However I didn’t care for number four all that much and the
script is the main culprit. Like Tokyo Drift this clearly seems like it was
intended to be another movie that got rebranded to become a Fast and Furious. It’s completely different from anything we’ve
seen in the first three. Now while that
certainly is a good thing in my book I don’t think the story flows well, the
way things are written you really only need one hero so having both Dom and
Brian share the lead and do the same shit throughout is redundant and
pointless, the villain doesn’t come off very threatening and the car sequences
aren’t as well done as the ones in Tokyo Drift.
It makes sense though that this is the movie that shot the
franchise into superstardom. The
filmmakers managed to make the shit on screen seem way more important than some
underground street racing thing, truck hijacking or a teen learning how to
drift. The plot is actually more in line
with 2 Fast by raising the stakes to
include drug trafficking and making all the street racing be only one aspect of
that. But fuck that movie. Fast
& Furious is done way better.
For me The Fast and the Furious is the best of the first four with Tokyo Drift at number two, Fast
& Furious third and 2 Fast 2 Furious last. There are too many
flaws in the fourth to place it any higher.
But hey if you’re a fan of the series this one is crucially important
for two reasons. One is it sets up the
formula and events for the fifth and sixth films. And two is it did gangbusters at the box
office which showed that the series was on the right track and more should be
greenlit immediately. I totally believe
this was make or break time. If number
four bombed then either the sequels would continue in the direct to video
market or none would be made at all.
Four had to deliver big and it did (just not with me personally).
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