I'm pissed off, and I hate this movie!

How can I hate it, and give it a 4.5? I hate it because I loved this movie! Have I got you confused yet? :) It breaks down a little bit like this... I saw the first previews of this movie, and immediately thought it was going to suck. And, as time wore on, I grew more and more hatred for this movie. I wanted so bad to avoid it at all costs... and maybe catch it on a lazy Sunday when it's on HBO or something like that... and that was still an iffy situation.

Then Joe got some free passes, and took his little sister to see it. Now... other than me, he is the first person I'd expect to hate this movie. You can imagine my shock when I read his review of the movie... in that he actually liked it.

How could this be?! No way... I was utterly convinced that he was just trying to trick me into watching the movie as well, so I'd have to suffer through what he suffered through. I was convinced that the review he wrote up was a fake, and after he conned me into seeing it, he'd put up the real review. But he kept offering to take me to go see it, I refused to pay to see this movie, so he was going to grab some more free passes... instead, we ended up going on a weekend... the passes are only good for Monday through Thursday. I still wasn't going to pay... so he paid for my ticket. That's how sure he was that I too would like this movie.

And I hate to say it... but he was right. DAMNIT! It was a damn fun movie... and as cheesy as it sounds, I caught myself getting into it, when they'd jump, I'd grunt, or hoot, and watching a car fly past the screen at 140+ mph is ... shall we say ... a rush. Not only do you get the external shots, but also the internal... and you can almost feel the speed. Granted, I like the real thing better, but for a movie... it's a damn good impression. I've never gotten the true feeling of speed in any other movie, like I did with this movie.

The story is fairly simple... basically, if you've seen Point Break, combine that with Gone in 60 Seconds (the remake), and you've got The Fast and The Furious. (Yes, I got that analogy from Joe's review, but I've heard from no less than 5 sources that if you've seen Point Break, you've basically got the plot of this movie).

A group of street racers (surfers) are robbing trucks (banks), and their group is being infiltrated by an FBI agent, sent to find the ring leader, and bring justice (ummm... yeah, the same thing). You see... Point Break, only with cars instead of surf boards... not just any cars though... fast cars. While I myself am not big on the "Import Scene" in the automotive industry, I can appreciate any car that's fast... regardless of what it looks like on the outside.

You know what shocked me the most about this movie though? No sex scenes. That's not a bad thing either... but it's one of those things that you expect because of how the previews portray the movie. Yes, there were some hot women... but for the most part, the sex was implied, but never shown. It's kind of refreshing to see an action/adventure movie, where there's no sex scenes just thrown in there for the gratuitous sex scene. Highlander, anyone? "My name is Connor McLeod, of the Clan McLeod, and I cannot die..." and cut to sex scene. Huh? ... of course, the same can be applied to just about any other action movie currently out, or available for rent or purchase. Sometimes it's just nice to leave things to the imagination.

So, there you have it. Not much of a review... more of just my feelings about the movie... but, now I highly recommend you go see this movie, if you haven't already. It's good. Go.

The story is fairly simple. Ever since the trailers started rolling out for this thing, you could feel the ominous groan of a theater full of patrons who could not be any less enthused about such an empty looking film. You got a bunch of nobodies,breasts, a Rob Lowe look alike,breasts, fast cars, Asians on motorcycles pulling out machine guns and at the center... Vin Diesel. "Who?" You may ask. Yes, Vin Diesel, bald headed, muscle bound star of Pitch Black. He plays Dominic Toretto, organizer of a series of illegal street races drawing a group of thousands. This film starts with an almost Karate Kid kind of formula.

There's a new guy on the block named Brian, played by Paul Walker. This guy is the direct product of Rob Lowe and Sean Patrick Flannery. Brian works for a local car parts distributor and happens to have a taste for Dominic's sister's tuna. No no no no!!! Not what you think. Dominic also runs a sandwich shop that Brian goes to frequently to eat and pick up on Dom's sister, Mia. Unfortunately, Dom has a group of gearhead buddies. One of which has an eye on MIA as well so, you guessed it, this sparks a deep confrontation between Brian and the goon named Vince. What ensues is a barrage of fast cars, fast women, guns, police, drugs, train robbery style truck jobs and a whole lotta LOUD! Sounds kinda like my last family reunion. I don't wanna give away too much more of the story because I don't want to ruin it for the ones that are going to see it.

What follows is my humble opinion on this "film" called The Fast and The Furious. I was almost too embarrassed to turn in the FREE PASS to see this movie. I was just so incredibly bored that I wanted to get out and this presented an opportunity to do just that. So, I get my ticket and settle down into the theater. What can I say about this film other than it pissed me off BIG TIME! You wanna know why I'm so pissed? Because I absolutely LOVED it. I thought it was one of the best movie going experiences of the year. I can't remember the last time I had so much FUN watching a film. I was completely taken in. Not that there weren't some totally cheesy aspects to this film, but it really proved me wrong when it came to my preconception (does that work?) of the quality of the film.

Everyone and their mother knows about how I feel about my buddy Jay and his Mustang rallies. These things are ridiculous. They go out and just park their cars and stand around with their hands in their pockets for like 9 hours. They do stuff like that in this film too but the difference is once they meet up, like 8 guys get together and put down $2,000 each to enter the night's race. I'm sure this is a major over glorifications of the world of street racing but they made it look exciting as hell. Sure, some of the dialogue was tired and cliché. One of the character's tells another "I need time." To which the other character replies "You want time, buy the magazine because I got no more to give." That ranks as high as Halle Berry's "You know what happens to a Toad when it's struck by lightning" line from X-Men as far as bad dialogue goes.

Beyond that, my whole being was snared right into this movie. It played a lot like Point Break meets Gone in Sixty Seconds... only I found it much better than Gone in Sixty Seconds. If you can believe this the characters in this movie were a hell of a lot more believable. After the first race, your attention is undivided, with fast chases and high action and adventure you're sucked in and it's an incredible ride. I hate being proven wrong when it comes to films and it doesn't happen often but The Fast and The Furious has earned itself a huge fan. A million and one times better than Tomb Raider or Unbreakable. See this film in a theater. A loud, stereo surround theater. They cranked the volume in the theater when I saw this movie and I couldn't have been happier.