Saturday, April 04, 2009

"Fast & Furious" (2009) - Movie Review

The current dangerous world we live in today consist of tough jobs. Researching in the deadly cold lands in polar regions, fire fighters, being a realtor in the current economic condition are all can be considered toughest jobs as many say right now. But the toughest will be of Vin Diesel playing Dom Toretto in the “Fast & Furious” and with a sincerity delivering those dialogues takes quite a tough comedian to make fun of it as tons of crap has already been poured on itself. So they say there is a big argument amongst the “fans” of this prequel, sequel and interquel issue in the film series and that would be the second worst thing to waste your time on next to Justin Lin’s flick.

There is fury in the camera to bury with enough dirt, smoke and dark. And with custom fitted suit runs Paul Walker as Brian O’Connor jumping buildings and kicking bad guys. One name would connect the old buddies Brian and Dom. Dom though is mourning his dead girl friend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez). She was murdered and Dom is a walking Hollywood vengeance. With his stony body, our baldy guy takes his time to get in position as David Caruso does in “CSI:Miami” and say those awful lines. But he cannot beat Caruso though. That TV series is a ser-com (Serious Comedy) by itself.

What does the location of the character signify in this film. For a moment Dom is shown living in Panama City and then a phone call brings him back to States. Before that they pull off something in Dominic Rebuplic which gets the title for itself. The broken love of Brian and Dom’s sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) wherein some open ended questions resulting in “I Don’t Know” will be answered with hardly thought replies on some one suffering from writer’s block.

So I know many of you are questioning what the hell has gone with this reviewer in looking for story in a film like this. Well the action scenes except for the heist of stealing the oil in the first scene (which of course has its own share of comic implausibilities) have no real energy and kinetic force to give the feel of a roller coaster ride. But what can you do with just car chasing each other. They invent a tunnel on the US-Mexico border and now you are in dark wondering who is driving which car. It returns for a climax where the hopes are lost.

If “Fast & Furious” was taken as five separate short films comprising of the chase scenes in each, I might be a little intrigued. No purpose for the characters other than to drive obnoxiously with deafening sounds and shifting gears maniacs. So I would not worry about the fillers being an insult to the medium. And I can relax after fifteen minutes of action scene to come back for more with no qualms.

Of course the film will be a great appeal to car enthusiasts and blockbuster blood thirsty audience. It has the “MTV Grind” ladies with skin as their costume to roll over the metal and makes us wonder what do they think about all this. They are the wasteful props as the main characters. Then the suspense. How much work did they invest upon to reveal the bad guy. Who cares? No one does and that is actually their expectation as such it is a brainless action film.

Why does film which I enter with such a clear expectation annoys me? Wherein I know that the labour of watching it will only result in another wasteful time of mine to write one and half page review about it? It is the same with many romantic comedies for which I can lip sync the predictability of the lousy plots. Yet I go again and again with the hope of something better coming out of it. In this current economy I feel there needs a judgment call for films like “Fast & Furious”. But then again there is always a possibility of a good film in the string of horrendous exhibits.

3 comments:

Aru said...

thanks for writing this. The movie sucked and i cudnt stand it at all.

Ashok said...

You are welcome Aravind :-).

Ashok said...

Mantra2,

I have not seen the Tokyo Drift but from the looks of it, I might not seeing it at all.