Review of Fast and the Furious, The

Introduction

You`d be forgiven for making numerous comparisons between this movie and the 1991 Keanu Reeves / Patrick Swayze movie "Point Break" as the 2 movies share almost an identical plot. Undercover cop infiltrates gang . . . discovers different sub-culture . . . gets befriended by gang leader . . . falls for woman closely involved with said gang leader . . . can he do the right thing when the time comes? Gone are the surf boards, however, and in comes something with far more universal appeal.

The Fast and the Furious is all about cars, lots and lots of very fast cars. Now I`m not a "petrol head" and see my own car as strictly something to get me from A to B so I was more than a little sceptical about seeing this movie. It was one of the surprise hits of last year so just maybe there was something more than just cars involved here.

Video

This picture quality is excellent throughout. Colours are very rich and vibrant, evident on the beautiful looking cars, whilst the levels of detail remain high even during the darker scenes.

As I said before I`m not into the whole fast cars thing however even I would admit that the cars featured in this movie look damn sexy.

Audio

The Audio comes in DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 flavours. I opted for the DTS version and, as expected, it really was rather good. In a movie that features high speed action you would expect some suitably high speed sound to go with it and this disc doesn`t disappoint. Engine sounds fly around the room closely matching the onscreen movement whilst the whole experience is given a meaty weight to it by great use of the subwoofer. This is a teriffic example of a soundtrack really enhancing the onscreen action.

Be warned this is definitely a movie to watch when the neighbours are out, it`s a little bit on the loud side!

Features

I was initially a little miffed at the lack of extras however thanks to a poorly designed menu screen I was missing the `next page` arrow (hint : it`s next the the `Play Movie` button bottom right).

Having now found all the extras on the disc we have a Directors commentary, an interesting 18 minute "Making of" documentary, the original article which inspired the movie and a featurette on editing the movie, multiple angle stunt sequence, movie magic special effects (showing how the final sequence was created), story boards, 8 deleted scenes, visual effects montage, music videos, music highlights, trailer and various production notes.

I particularly enjoyed the deleted scenes with commentary from the director. I found it very interesting to here just why certain scenes were cut.

What can I say? A bumper selection in anyone`s book and to be commended.

Conclusion

I was worried about this movie being nothing more than a mechanism for young males to fantasise about fast cars and unfortunately I was right. There is little or no substance here and I finished the movie feeling as if things never really got going.

As a member of the audience I need something to get me involved, something to make me care about the outcome. Now in the case of the far superior "Point Break" you always got the feeling that the gang of villains were really rather dangerous and that anything could happen, not so in this movie. Far from being dangerous the "villains" come across as almost tame in comparison. Also the hijackings are of no consequence as no-one is ever hurt and the stolen goods are of no interest at all. It`s hard to comment on the acting as the dialogue is also of little interest.

There are a few high speed action scenes which work well and use some nice visual effects to portray speed however you can`t help but feel that some of them are far too controlled and staged. Take, for example, the final truck raid. Whilst I`m sure it involved some impressive stunt work the setting made it feel as if they found the most out of the way place (i.e. safest) for it to take place on.

Any good points about this movie? Well the cars do look and sound damn fine so if that butters your muffin then you`ll probably already own this disc anyway - and from a DVD point if a view it`s a great disc.

If, like me, cars just aren`t your thing then this is one to rent for curiosities sake. Not recommended.