Same Old, Same Old

Fast and Furious Review

The above picture is from pretty much the only really strong scene of Fast & Furious, a truck-hijacking shot with longer takes that allow the viewer to see what is going on and appreciate the stunt work. There’s also a chase scene on foot shortly after which is similarly shot and edited.

After that it’s the same old stuff, if you’ve seen The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift you know what to expect here: super quick cuts, confusing visuals, plentiful shots of girls in short skirts walking buy cars, that’s pretty much what you get in this film and the Tokyo Drift one.

The director Justin Lin once upon a time did a great indie called Better Luck Tomorrow playing off Asian stereotypes. Watching this movie makes me sad that he’s wasting his talent.

The story is practically irrelevant, it offers nothing new nor does Vin Diesel (all grumble, all the time) or Paul Walker (this generation’s Keanu Reeves).

In fact, the two scenes I really enjoyed are already online, I believe distributed by the film company itself and available on Yahoo’s movie site.

So why sit through the whole movie?

Funny Line of Exposition

To set up the character of Han’s (Sung Kang) eventual departure to Tokyo (the film opens before those events take place) he says something to the effect of, ‘I hear they’re doing some crazy shit in Tokyo”. The entire theatre laughed. If you think audiences are dumb, this is proof they can pick up on poorly-written exposition.

Three Way Lesbian Kisses

There are two of them in the film. For no particular reason. So that’s pretty humorous as well.