A Thread 4 Fast 4 Furious

Yes, yes. Join the Tokyo Drift team.

When I decided to go through my own marathon of the franchise I went from the first film to the third. I already knew the second had a negative reputation and had seen some clips on a gym tv that turned me off to the whole thing. While the first was fun enough, the soundtrack and opening montage of Tokyo Drift were a surprisingly effective hook for me. Then what really sold me was the fact that the race didn't cause my eyes to glaze over .

Granted I have a soft spot for anything Japan. However, Tokyo Drift got me invested in the franchise as a consistently entertaining circus.

If you can find it, I recommend Justin Lin's first film Better Luck Tomorrow, which sadly has yet to get a Blu-ray release. It's technically canon, since Han is in it.

Han...

Now things are getting good.

I laughed out loud at your review, Redherring.

Especially this.

Things I learned from this movie:
In Tokyo, cars can go around corners but they must be sliding to do it. This is 100% mandatory in all cars on all journeys.

Now we're up to the point where we can discuss my theory.

As you'll see at the end of F&F6, Tokyo Drift takes place after that and in fairly modern times. A high-school aged Zachery Ty Bryan plays the rival at the beginning of 3, who is mysteriously cleared of all charges from the race because of his father's pull with local law enforcement. The kind of pull you get from, say, being a cocaine snitch.

I propose that this means that the Fast and Furious Universe is a subset of the larger Home Improvement Extended Universe, and that the villain revealed in F&F9 is going to be Al Borland.

I don't think so, Tim.

Redherring wrote:

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift - 2006

The best one so far: Might actually be this one?

congratulationsyoupassed.gif

SpacePPoliceman wrote:
Redherring wrote:

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift - 2006

The best one so far: Might actually be this one?

congratulationsyoupassed.gif

Well that’s a relief

Also ccesarano - I can rent Better Luck Tomorrow on Google Play movies. I’d never heard of it before.

And Bonus_Eruptus - as Steke said, I don’t think so Tim.

Meanwhile, a speed bump in my journey - recorded Fast Five on Sunday and set the next one to record ... and it’s Furious Seven. I know I can rent #6, but I was enjoying the free ride

Have you watched 4 already?

DSGamer wrote:

Have you watched 4 already?

Not yet...

Fast and Furious - 2009

On the highways of the Dominican Republic - the gang is back! the real one, with Dom and Letty. and Han! This is going to be an awesome teamup with Dom and Letty and Han!
The gang are going to steal some petrol, which is called gas, even though it's a liquid. Naturally they will do this in the stupidest and most dangerous way possible.

5 minutes later ... (after Letty leaps on to a moving truck, uses a liquid nitrogen spray thingy to disconnect the trailers, then leaps back into Dom's car seconds before the truck explodes, then they dodge the flaming wreckage by driving under it)
Dom: "The police are after me. It will be too dangerous for you to be with me when they catch up with me. Go away."
Letty and Han: "But didn't we just..."
Dom: "Too. Dangerous"
Han: "Fine, I'll go to Tokyo where I will be perfectly safe"
Letty: "I'll go and get murdered off screen"
Dom: "Ok"

So.. this is going to be an awesome team up with Dom. But wait! Brian returns, with an upgrade, he can now do rooftop chases in addition to car chases. Dom and Brian will meet up with explosive results:

Dom: "I hate you and I don't trust you at all"
Brian: "Ok, Can I join your gang again?"
Dom: "Yep"
Brian: "Mind if I get back together with your sister?"
Dom: "Nope"

And there's an evil crime lord .. where have I seen this before?

An evil crime lord needs to be brought down, so Brian and his much cooler friend Roman Dominic are going to be undercover cops again. Except they’re not cops. They’re going to move some drugs money across town the Mexican border by driving extremely ostentatious cars very fast in the middle of the day. No one will ever notice. And get revenge for Letty too.

Will Dominic and Brian get revenge (yes)
Will Brian get back together with Mia (of course)
Will the cops regret giving Brian his job back? (yes)

Things I learned from this movie: Writing sequels is easy! Just find and "replace all" some names then you can have the rest of the week off.

The best one so far: still Tokyo Drift.

Highly enjoying your recaps!

Next up: The Rock.

Making me want to watch these again

Fast Five = The Best Fast

While certainly not good, F&F (2009) has some things I will say for it:

1- Love the race through the LA streets.
2- Immaculately timed villain death.
3- Dom being able to Sherlock together car-related crime scenes rules.
4- Brian and Dom fighting lasted exactly as long as it should because SHE DID IT FOR YOU, DOM! SHE JUST WANTED YOU TO COME HOME! So it makes more sense than Civil War.

Plus you need to see F&F so you can get jacked at the start of Fast Five.

Please, please let this franchise end with a battle in space. Please...

Stylez_Bee wrote:

Please, please let this franchise end with a battle in space. Please...

I believe that's traditionally part 10, a la Friday the 13th.

Would love it if they ended with a car chase on the moon. Would be a fitting end to a gang of street racers who started off by stealing and fencing VHS players.

What is this “end” of which you speak? The only way this can or will end is if the universe explodes.

Yeah, this series isn't gonna end any time soon, and when it does, if it does, it'll all be like multi dimensional nonsense! The Fastverse!

DSGamer wrote:

Would love it if they ended with a car chase on the moon. Would be a fitting end to a gang of street racers who started off by stealing and fencing VHS players.

Please, sir! Have some decency!

They were DVD players.

DSGamer wrote:

Would love it if they ended with a car chase on the moon. Would be a fitting end to a gang of street racers who started off by stealing and fencing VHS players.

Bah, Ad Astra beat them to the punch.

OK then, Fast Five is a lot to take in. I might need to watch it again to really get it before I post my completely accurate and insightful thoughts.

That doesn't bode well. Everyone, please start preemptively taking chill pills. We need to be calm!

Spoiler:

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EPpOw5VUYAAHxKw?format=jpg&name=large)

I feel like I'm just a debbie downer lately because a buddy of mine shared that earlier and... it feels a bit phoned in?

Which sounds silly to say considering all the cash that clearly went into it, but I'm having trouble finding the heart to it. I think without the Rock you lose some serious heart, which actually makes the absence of Brian/Paul Walker felt all the more.

Leading me to wonder...

Spoiler:

...is that why they're bringing Han back? I mean, seeing that alone made me jump in my seat, but if they're bringing him back is it because they feel there's something missing?

I dunno. I still haven't seen Hobbes & Shaw, so maybe 8 was my limit. Curious to see how the rest of you will react.

Wow, had no idea this was coming so soon.

Also holy sh*t what?

Fast Five - 2011 aka Toretto's Eleven

Straight into the action where the previous movie left off! Mia and Brian are going to bust Dominic out of prison. They'll achieve this by completely destroying a prison transport bus and killing everyone inside! But no, somehow everyone survives and only Dominic escapes. Success!

And then we're in Rio de Janeiro - just in case you forget, we'll sweep the camera over Christ the Redeemer in between every scene (more or less). Rio. The team have been in town (which is Rio) for approximately 38 seconds before they manage to annoy the local crime boss, steal a chip that he wants, and get a top DSS agent and his team on their trail. nice work!

So, Dominic and crew are going to steal all of the money (one hundred million dollars) and escape to a new life. They're going to need a team! And what a team it is - everyone is back. Roman and Tej, Han, Gisele, and .... some guys who speak Spanish. Even our old buddy NOS has a part to play.

Meanwhile DSS agent Hobbs teams up with Elena, the only cop in town (Rio) who isn't corrupt. They're going to kick ass and take names. But I don't see any writing implements.

Things come to an explosive head when Hobbs arrests everyone, then everyone gets shot at, so the two teams team up to take down the bad guys:

Hobbs: "I am going to take all of you to prison right now"
Dom: "OK, would you like to join our team first and steal a bunch of money and destroy half of Rio?"
Hobbs: "Yep"
Elena (the only cop in Rio who isn't corrupt): "I would also like to join your criminal enterprise and help you steal money and endanger the lives of countless people"

Will the team get the money? (yes)
Will the team escape to their new lives (yes)
Will Hobbs keep his job? (bizarrely, yes)

Things I learned from this movie:
This movie is set in Rio
Rio does not have the same laws of physics as other places.

This is brilliant! Action, explosions, romance, explosions. It's also in Rio in case you didn't notice. I love the whole ensemble team and how everyone plays their part. And then that after-credits teaser for the next one...

The best one so far: Fast Five takes the cake. It takes the cake, straps it to a speeding car then drives it into a an exploding train.

Bonus - let's evaluate the team's performances:
Dom: Drives cars, shoots people, makes plans, says stuff about family. 9/10
Brian: has become progressively less boring. Drives, shoots, saves Dom at the last minute. 8/10
Han: Is Han. 10/10
Mia: Communications and tech guru (where did that come from?). 9/10
Gisele: Um ... gets a hand print. 4/10
Roman: Drives a car for a bit. 3/10
Tej: Cracks a vault. 6/10
Spanish speaking guys: Blow up a toilet and burn a steak. 2/10
Elena: Shoots some bad guys. 5/10
Hobbs: Destroys a police station and shoots some bad guys. 8/10
NOS: Destroys the laws of physics. 5/10

Yes!

That's for Five summary.

I don't know about the trailer.